Compliance Set Punchestown Date Michael O'Brien's In Compliance is set for a spell on the easy list before beginning his preparations for the Punchestown Festival in April.O'Brien has ruled out a tilt at the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup after a string of niggling setbacks hindered the seven-year-old's training schedule.After impressing in the Grade One John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase in December, connections were forced to bypass the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup as their charge was not sparkling at home.And while In Compliance had been making good progress, O'Brien abandoned his Cheltenham plans after discovering a minor problem on Wednesday.'Everything seemed to be going OK and the horse was coming back to himself but on Wednesday morning we checked him in his box and he had a mark on the back of his joint,' he explained.'He'd obviously given himself a bang and when that happened he was going to have to have two days off and be in the spa.'There's nothing wrong with the joint but he was just going to have to miss more work so I thought it was time to call a halt.'After having too many little things go wrong, he was just having to miss too much work and he's not a horse that you can just come and chuck a lot of work into quickly.'(C) PA Sport
