Neil Mulholland to swerve Cheltenham Festival with Shantou Village

Shantou Village, second favourite with some bookmakers for the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate Handicap Chase at Cheltenham next week, will miss the race.A smart novice hurdler last term until he suffered an injury in the Albert Bartlett at the Festival, the seven-year-old had made a good start to his career over fences.Wins at Fontwell and Cheltenham marked him out as an exciting prospect but he then fell at Wincanton in November and has not been seen since.Trainer Neil Mulholland had been targeting a comeback at the Festival but Shantou Village has not come to hand quickly enough, with Aintree and Ayr now possible objectives in the spring."It's all just coming too early for him," said Mulholland."He had the winter off and while I'm delighted with the condition of all my other horses, his coat just doesn't look great at the minute."He'll have plenty of options at Aintree or there's even the Future Champions Novices' Chase up at Ayr, but nothing is set in stone, just like Cheltenham wasn't."