Solwhit: breezed on Saturday morning and scoped clean afterwards
PICTURE: Caroline NorrisSolwhit given Champion Hurdle go-ahead
SOLWHIT will travel to Cheltenham on Saturday night after he was given the go-ahead to run in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle by trainer Charles Byrnes.
The five-time Grade 1-winning hurdler's participation in Tuesday's big race had been in serious doubt since Monday after the six-year-old coughed and scoped dirty and Byrnes had described his stable star's prospects of running as "less than 50-50 ".
Speaking on Saturday morning, Byrnes told racingpost.com: "Solwhit breezed this morning and scoped clean afterwards, so we have decided to let him take his chance.
"He travels over by ferry tonight and we will continue to monitor the situation. We will check him out fully on Tuesday morning.
"What happened this week was certainly not the ideal preparation for a Champion Hurdle. However, while he has never been a great grubber, he never went off his food during the week.
"He was coughing and scoped dirty on Monday but we have decided to keep going forward with him after his encouraging scope this morning."
