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Willie Mullins’ Impaire Et Passe, who was a notable absentee from both the Unibet Champion Hurdle and Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle at next month's Cheltenham Festival, will instead head to Aintree.

The Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old looked to carry all before him after winning the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham last year, but he's yet to land a blow at the top-level in three runs this season, including when no match for State Man in the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival on Sunday.

Munir and Souede's racing manager Anthony Bromley said of the decision: "The feeling after Daryl Jacob (Jacob) rode him the other day was that we need to keep him to two and a half miles and there isn't a two-and-a-half-mile race at Cheltenham. We'll wait for Aintree and see if we can get him sparkling again.

"We don't feel he's reached the form that he was showing last year, so the idea is to wait for Aintree and if he's not sparkling going into Aintree, we'll just wait for novice chasing next season.

"We can't see either race at Cheltenham being what needs at this moment. Two miles looks too short, and we don't want to go three miles at this stage.

"Daryl was adamant to go two and a half at Aintree and freshen him up for that."

Stablemate Vauban was also scratched following the latest Champion Hurdle entries stage, whilst both Burdett Road and Bob Olinger also failed to take their place, with the former looking likely to reoppose his recent conqueror Sir Gino in the Triumph Hurdle and the latter expected to head to Aintree to take on Impaire Et Passe.

Jonbon was a notable absentee from the Ryanair Chase, whilst neither Royale Pagaille nor Stay Away Fay were present in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup