Flynn has faith in Lip

Pat Flynn is sure Louisville Lip is better than he showed when last of 11 in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown on Saturday.

The four-year-old made a good impression when making a winning debut over obstacles at Thurles last month and was snapped up by leading owner JP McManus prior to his step up to Grade One level.

However, the youngster was beaten a long way from home and Flynn believes a minor infection may have been to blame for that below-par performance.

"We can't really figure out what happened as he's never run a bad race - even on the Flat," said Flynn.

"We think that he had an infection as it took a while for him to recover after the race, which just isn't like him.

"When he won in Thurles he wasn't fit and he still won, but he was more tired after the race on Saturday when we thought we had him a good bit fitter as we'd done plenty with him at home.

"I'm not looking for excuses, I just want a reason as I thought he would definitely be in the first three.

"He ate up but there is no way he could run that bad if he was right. He just has the classic symptoms of having a little cold or something like that.

"If he wasn't good enough, he'd have finished fifth or sixth and David (Casey) said to me after the race we should just put a line through it as he wasn't the same horse as he was in Thurles.

"He said after the third hurdle he just didn't feel as strong as before and it was just too bad to be true."

Louisville Lip does hold an entry in the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and Flynn still plans to let his charge travel if he pleases in the next few weeks.

"We'll go back to the drawing board, but you can't just say he won't go to Cheltenham because of one bad run," the trainer added.

"We'll play it by ear and see how he is but if we're happy, we'll still go."