Willie Mullins’ five-year-old is among the Champions Hurdle favourites but his absence from the December meeting has caused jitters
Saldier, who has been among the favourites for next year’s Champion Hurdle since an impressive win on his return to action last month, will miss his intended start at Leopardstown’s valuable
Christmas meeting after failing to recover from the race as Willie Mullins would have liked.
In claiming the Grade One Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown in November, Saldier pushed his stable companion, Klassical Dream, back to third. The Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown on 29 December looked like an obvious stepping stone on the way to Cheltenham, but his name was not on the list when the entries were published on Monday.