Flooring Porter set for another Christmas Hurdle bid Gavin Cromwell has expressed his satisfaction with Flooring Porter's seasonal reappearance at Navan and pinpointed Leopardstown at Christmas for his next outing. The seven-year-old gelding, who has won the last two renewals of the Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham, made the running in the 2m4f Grade 2 Railway Bar Lismullen Hurdle at Navan before he was headed racing to three out. He could make no impression before the last and dropped to fourth behind surprise winner Home By The Lee. Cromwell said: "I was pretty happy with the run and he’s been fine since. He was giving away 9lb to everything that was in front of him, and it was four furlongs short of his optimum trip. He took a good blow. “You would love to be winning these races, but we were pretty happy with him. “He’ll come forward plenty from that and the Grade 1 in Leopardstown at Christmas will be his next run. “The horses have been in great form and hopefully we can keep them like that.” Flooring Porter won the three mile Grade 1 Leopardstown Christmas Hurdle by six lengths in 2020 and took the runner-up berth last year. This year's race has been renamed in honour of the late Jack de Bromhead. Additional reporting by Alan Magee
