Solerina Out Of Cheltenham Festival Solerina, leading Irish contender for the Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle was ruled out of the Cheltenham Festival yesterday.The six-year-old had developed an infection in the cannon bone region of her near hind leg. She got a scratch while winning at Thurles earlier in the season, and the infection was lying dormant until flaring up now, just three weeks before the Cheltenham Festival.The heart-breaking news for the Bowe family came just 24 hours after stable-mate Limestone Lad was re-instated as a runner at the festival following a cough.So it was with deep dejection that Bowe said: 'Training horses is such a headache. We had been having such a great run through the season and now this is our second serious problem in the space of a couple of weeks. Solerina has been on antibiotics and as a result she has lost her appetite and gone off colour, so there is no way that we could contemplate a Festival run.' Solerina had been prominent in the betting for the Royal& SunAlliance for some time - she was 8-1 third favourite with Coral - and in her absence the Jonjo O`Neill-trained Coolnagorna remains a solid 4-1 favourite.
