O´Brien Rues Valira Slip

Michael O´Brien is likely to test the waters with De Valira next season to ascertain whether he has a potential Champion Hurdle candidate on his hands.

Sent off at 9-2 in the vcbet.com Champion Novice Hurdle won by Clopf earlier in the week, the gelding crashed out at the fourth-last when travelling well within himself.

'I think he was very unlucky,' O´Brien said.

'He went into the hurdle half a length behind the other two and he landed on his knees, spreadeagled and hurt his back a little bit.

'I think the the race was really run to suit him and I think he was very unlucky.

'We´d have the Champion Hurdle in mind and it´s just whether he comes up good enough that is the question.'

De Valira could finish only 10th behind Ebaziyan in the Supreme Novices´ Hurdle, but O´Brien believes that was not a true reflection of his ability.

'When he went to Cheltenham he didn´t run too bad and our horses were wrong at the time. It really made a man of him and he was a different horse when he came back,' he told At The Races.

'I was really looking forward to the other day because that was going to tell us what he was.'

The five-year-old son of St Leger winner Shantou is a half-brother to the ill-fated Valiramix, who had to be put down after slipping up in the Champion Hurdle of 2002.

(C) PA Sport