Pont Alexandre has been ruled out of today's Tattersalls Ireland Champion Novice Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival.

The Willie Mullins trained five year old was widely viewed as one of the leading Irish challengers for the Cheltenham Festival but he could only finish third behind The New One in the Neptune Novices' Hurdle.

Pont Alexandre was the odds-on favourite for this afternoon's Grade One contest but he has been scratched from the race after being found to be lame this morning.

Mullins still has a strong hand in the race with the highly regarded Un Atout who will be expected to take all the beating having finished fourth in the Supreme Novices' at Cheltenham last time.