Racing Digest NAAS: Solerina booked her ticket for the bonusprint.com Stayers´ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival with an impressive victory at Naas on Saturday. James Bowe´s admirable mare was sent off at 1 to 4 for the Bank Of Ireland Hurdle and her supporters never had a moment´s worry as she made all the running under Gary Hutchinson to register a six-length win over Bob Justice. Afterwards, the winning handler´s son, Michael, said: 'She was entitled to win this, but I was a little concerned during the week because she seemed a little flatter than usual. She is very intelligent, so we decided not to bring her back to Leopardstown again after her defeat there. We´ll go for the Boyne Hurdle at Navan now.' Solerina is also entered in the Smurfit Champion Hurdle at the Festival, but Bowe said: 'She is a little version of Limestone Lad and will definitely go for the Stayers´ Hurdle after that.' Solerina is a 5 to 1 chance for the stayers´ prize with William Hill. The featured Grade Two Woodlands Park 100 Club Novice Chase saw 14 to 1 outsider Lord Who, ridden by Paul Carberry, defeat Jim in a thrilling battle. Even-money favourite Emotional Moment and Contempo Suite came to grief, leaving Lord Who and Jim to fight out the finish. At the last the pair bumped before Lord Who got the better of his rival by two lengths. Winning trainer Pat Doyle said: 'He´s not a bad horse and is rarely out of the money. He needs a left-handed track and we´ll aim him at the four-mile chase at Cheltenham (National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup) if he is qualified.' THEREALBANDIT: Owner David Johnson yesterday refused to rule out a tilt at the Tote Cheltenham Gold with his promising novice Therealbandit. The seven-year-old could still tackle the blue riband even though he took a heavy tumble four out when still going well in the Pillar Property Chase won by Jair Du Cochet at Cheltenham on Saturday. Therealbandit is undergoing treatment from physio Mary Bromiley, but Johnson is confident of having a crack at either the Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at the Festival in March. 'Thankfully, Therealbandit is okay and I am sure he´ll be back in time for Cheltenham,' he said. Johnson added that another factor to take into account when considering Therealbandit´s Cheltenham target would be how Our Vic gets on in his first novice chase at either Warwick or Folkestone later in the week. TOTE CHANGES: Tote Ireland have announced a number of changes to their Jackpot bet, with the unit stake to be reduced from €1 to 50 cents and future carryovers will roll over to the next day´s meeting rather than remaining at the original track. The new measures start at Leopardstown´s Hennessy meeting on February 8th where there will be a Jackpot guarantee of a50,000, with an additional bonus of the same amount for an outright winner.
