It has been confirmed Brave Inca will have the final start of his momentous season at Punchestown next month but where the Champion Hurdle winner and his trainer Colm Murphy will be based in the longer term now appears to be in some doubt.
Murphy revealed yesterday he is prepared to close down his training operation at Killena near Gorey, Co Wexford, if a proposed housing development near his stables goes ahead.
"An application for planning permission for 129 houses right next to us is in place. If it goes ahead it will upset our whole training regime," the trainer said.
"A lot of the success we have had is down to this place being so rural and so quiet. Horses learn to relax here. But you can imagine the levels of noise pollution through the construction phase alone. It would make our job impossible. We would have to move and start up somewhere else. We would have no choice," he added.
One short-term decision about Brave Inca's future has already been made, however, with the horse missing out on Liverpool and going straight to Punchestown for the €180,000 ACC Bank Champion Hurdle on the last day of the festival.
"We can't fit them all in and waiting for Punchestown allows us to get him fresher," Murphy said. "I couldn't be happier with the way he has come out of Cheltenham. In fact it's incredible how well he came out of it. My initial reaction after the race was that he would have felt it but there's not a bother on him. He's an incredible horse."
The one proviso on Brave Inca again taking on Macs Joy and Hardy Eustace who finished behind him at Cheltenham will be the ground.
"We got away with it last year when he won but we were lucky. Good ground will be perfect. But if the word firm appears in the description he won't run," said Murphy, who added he felt it extremely unlikely that Brave Inca will be seen over fences next season.
"No decision has been taken on that but I'd be very surprised if he doesn't stay hurdling next season," he said.
One horse very definitely on his way to the Aintree Hurdle, however, is Al Eile who won the Grade One race last year and who has emerged in good shape from his fourth in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
"Liverpool is definitely on the agenda. It's been a goal all season and it's all systems go since he came out of his last race so well," said trainer John Queally yesterday.
"I would imagine we will go to Punchestown afterwards. It's probably his last year hurdling so we will give it a go. The idea of going chasing next season is in the pipeline," the Co Waterford trainer added.
Another horse on his way to Liverpool will be the Noel Meade-trained Sir Oj who was last seen crashing out of the Ryanair Chase at the fourth last.
"He definitely runs in the National and Paul (Carberry) will ride. He's in good form and everything has been fine since Cheltenham," Meade said yesterday.
The focus will be on the flat at Navan this Sunday where the Listed Ennistown Stud Salsabil Stakes, which attracted 12 entries at yesterday's forfeit stage, will be the feature.
The highest rated entry is the ex-French Perfect Hedge who will be having her first start for John Oxx after racing nine times in France for Nicholas Clement.
Perfect Hedge won the first three of those, including the Group Three Prix Penelope at Saint-Cloud last April. She also ran third to Hurricane Run in the Prix Niel last year as well as finishing sixth to Divine Proportions in the Prix de Diane.
Oxx also has Allexina in the race while the Aidan O'Brien pair of Sanctify and Sacrosanct are half of the three-year-old entry for the mile and a quarter event.
The chase track at Thurles was found to be unraceable yesterday ahead of tomorrow's scheduled card. Three of the remaining races, which are a bumper and three flat contests, will be divided to make a seven-race card.
