Options open for Empire Of Dirt Cheltenham Festival hero Empire Of Dirt is unlikely to make a swift return to action in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National on Easter Monday. The Colm Murphy-trained nine-year-old fell at the first fence in the Fairyhouse feature last year and also came to grief on his return to action in the Troytown Chase at Navan in November. He has endured mixed fortunes since, but showed his true talent when scoring at Leopardstown in January and backed that up with an impressive display in last week's Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate at Prestbury Park. Murphy said: "He seems fine. Everything is good and we're delighted with him. "It's probably unlikely he'll run at Fairyhouse, so we might look for something in Aintree with him. "He won over two and a half miles the other day, but I think we could step up or step back in trip if we wanted to. "We'll see what the options are and go from there."
