Valira ready for Champion test
De Valira remains on target for a crack at the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle after pleasing trainer Michael O’Brien with his comeback effort at the weekend.
Despite being off the track since falling at Punchestown last April, the six-year-old was sent off favourite for the Red Mills Centenary Trial Hurdle, in which he finished fourth behind Catch Me.
O’Brien said: “He’s fine after his run at the weekend and he hadn’t run for 10 months before it.
“He hadn’t had any racecourse gallops either, so he was entitled to get a bit tired and I wasn’t expecting the ground to be as heavy and dead as it was either.
“That’s really the one type of ground he doesn’t handle all that well, and having not run for 10 months and with the race run at such a gallop, I’d just say he blew up before he turned in.”
O’Brien was pleased to see De Valira race with plenty of enthusiasm and is now looking forward to Cheltenham’s March 11 feature – although he is well aware of the scale of the task ahead.
Reflecting on Saturday’s run, the County Kildare handler added: “He travelled well and he’ll come on a lot for that.
“There was never an awful lot between him and Catch Me and it just depends on how much he’ll improve as to what chance he’ll have in the Champion Hurdle.
“He’ll improve enough to run in it anyway and I presume he’ll go straight there now.
“There’s not much left open to him unless we gave him a run on the Flat on the all-weather, but he probably doesn’t need it.”
