Howard Johnson yesterday reported Arcalis to be in good order despite being pulled up at Haydock on Saturday. The six-year-old was travelling well before hitting the third-last flight in the Commhoist Logistics Champion Hurdle Trial and Graham Lee quickly pulled him up before the next.

"He's fine - he's been out in his paddock this morning," said Johnson. "The biggest problem was that they went too slow yesterday, he just got pulled about a bit and then he got a little bit disappointed.

"He hit that hurdle and Graham thought he was lame. Maybe he trapped a nerve but when he was pulled up, he was perfectly fine.

"The funny thing was, though, Graham said he seemed to be enjoying the heavy ground, but it was just one of those things."

Arcalis, impressive winner of the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle last November, is a general 8 to 1 chance for the Smurfit Champion Hurdle and he will be given a short break now.

"We'll give him a little bit of a break now and then just see where we are," said Johnson.

The County Durham handler suffered another blow on Saturday when talented chaser Lord Transcend was retired after pulling up lame in the Peter Marsh Chase.

"He's fine. He's going to go up to (owner) Andrea Wylie's and she's going to ride him around the estate," Johnson added.

"The problem is really with his sesamoids, his tendons are fine, but he will have a home second to none with Andrea."

Al Eile, winner of the Champion Hurdle trial, will now go for Newbury's totesport Trophy on February 11th.

"Newbury is the plan," said Dungarvan trainer John Queally. "Top weight won't bother him and he likes the flat tracks like Haydock, Aintree and Newbury. I think he is about 7lb better round places like that."

Al Eile travelled well throughout the race for Timmy Murphy and despite pulling hard in the early stages, he found the necessary reserves to hold off the game effort of Mister McGoldrick by a neck, with favourite Faasel five lengths back in third.