The 2007 Champion Hurdle hero also scoped dirty after the race and Hennessy is keeping his fingers crossed conditions are better at the Festival in March.

“He’s fine this morning but he did scope dirty after the race so we put him on a course of antibiotics and he will be on them for three or four days,” said Hennessy.

“It’s not too bad but with the way the ground turned out in the end, any little thing like that is going to catch him out.

“We were going to give him a few days off after the race anyway so he’ll go out to grass and get a bit of sun on his back.

“The sun is shining here today – it’s a pity it didn’t shine yesterday but there you go.”

Hennessy admits he feared the worst when the heavens opened earlier on the Leopardstown card and he is just pleased his charge has returned in one piece.

“We walked the track yesterday morning and we were happy enough and we walked it again after the first and while it was soft, it wasn’t heavy,” Hennessy continued.

“Then the heavens opened and the going was changed and it really was dreadful ground, but what can you do?

“There was not really anywhere else for him to go so we let him take his chance and I said to Philip (Carberry) going out that if he was in trouble, don’t knock him about so he wasn’t too hard on him.

“He didn’t jump great but that is mainly down to the ground and it was exactly the same in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham last year as he just can’t get out of that ground.

“If he gets his ground at Cheltenham, you couldn’t discard him. We won’t be writing him off just yet that’s for sure.”