O´Brien pleased with De Valira return De Valira remains on target for a crack at the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle after pleasing trainer Michael O´Brien with his comeback effort at the weekend. Despite being off the track since falling at Punchestown last April, the six-year-old was sent off favourite for the Red Mills Centenary Trial Hurdle, in which he finished fourth behind Catch Me. O´Brien said: "He´s fine after his run at the weekend and he hadn´t run for 10 months before it. "He hadn´t had any racecourse gallops either, so he was entitled to get a bit tired and I wasn´t expecting the ground to be as heavy and dead as it was either. "That´s really the one type of ground he doesn´t handle all that well, and having not run for 10 months and with the race run at such a gallop, I´d just say he blew up before he turned in." O´Brien was pleased to see De Valira race with plenty of enthusiasm and is now looking forward to Cheltenham´s March 11 feature - although he is well aware of the scale of the task ahead. Reflecting on Saturday´s run, the County Kildare handler added: "He travelled well and he´ll come on a lot for that. "There was never an awful lot between him and Catch Me and it just depends on how much he´ll improve as to what chance he´ll have in the Champion Hurdle. "He´ll improve enough to run in it anyway and I presume he´ll go straight there now. "There´s not much left open to him unless we gave him a run on the Flat on the all-weather, but he probably doesn´t need it."
