Compliance On Course For Fairyhouse

Leading totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup hope In Compliance is on schedule to reappear at Fairyhouse on Saturday week after pleasing connections in a workout at the Curragh.

The eight-year-old had been aimed at last weekend's Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup after beating current champion War Of Attrition in the John Durkan Memorial Chase.

But the inclement weather denied him valuable work at home on the gallops and O'Brien did not want his charge to go for a Grade One race, attempting three miles for the first time, undercooked.

'He just wasn't fit enough to run. We need to find out if he will stay three miles and test his stamina but we didn't want to test it to that extent,' he told At The Races.

'If you look at The Listener and Beef Or Salmon, they are out and out stayers and they were legless at the end.

'He worked at the Curragh and he is fine. He will run at Fairyhouse next weekend in the Bobbyjo Chase that we won with Forget The Past last year.

'It's over three miles and a furlong but we have no problem with the trip ourselves, we just didn't want to test him in a Grade One over three miles.

'The thing is to get him to Cheltenham and test him there. He's in good form, but we missed a good bit of work with him and he hadn't schooled since before Christmas and because of the weather we couldn't school him.

'We didn't want to throw him into a race like that without schooling him.'

In Compliance is a top-price 9-1 with the sponsors for the blue riband on March 16.

(C) PA Sport