Road To Riches, one of the rising stars in Noel Meade’s yard before disappointing at Aintree last week, looks set to turn out again this season at the Punchestown Festival.

The powerfully built six-year-old gelding was one of the leading fancies for the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle after scoring at Grade 3 level in Cork this term but missed Cheltenham following a poor workout before the Festival.

The son of Gamut dropped away tamely in the straight when well beaten behind At Fishers Cross in the John Smith’s Sefton Novices’ Hurdle last Friday but Meade is far from despondent.

“He seems fine after the run in Aintree, and he did a bit of work this morning and seems good.

“His last piece of work before Cheltenham was very poor so we had to ease right down after that and, when you’re running in a Grade 1, if you miss a few weeks it’s not ideal. He half blew up and when he did Barry (Geraghty) just eased him down.

“He’s come home well and everything is fine with him since, so we’re going to head for Punchestown and see what happens. If all goes well between now and then he’ll run in either the two and a half or the three mile novice hurdle.

“I was a bit concerned about the ground for him at Aintree but I don’t think it bothered him. It wasn’t as quick as we thought it might be and I wouldn’t put that forward as an excuse. It was probably a case that he was just short of peak fitness.

“Chasing is going to be his cup of tea anyway, and that’s where he’ll go next season.”