Flooring Porter© Photo Healy Racing
Flooring Porter will skip Punchestown in favour of the Aintree festival next month with trainer Gavin Cromwell also eyeing the French Champion Hurdle in June for his dual Stayers Hurdle winner.
The gelding successfully defended his Stayers Hurdle crown last Thursday, under jockey Danny Mullins, and Cromwell reports him to be in good health having returned to Ireland.
Cromwell said “Flooring Porter is great, I gave him a little canter this morning and he is 100%.
“He has really grown up - it is just maturity, but when you take him out of his familiar surroundings it can affect him but he is a very intelligent horse at the back of it all.
“We got him over there good and early which was a big help. He was a little on his toes for the first couple of days but then got settled into the place and the red hood was a big help at the start.
“He definitely won't go to Punchestown as he won't go right-handed so we will go to Aintree and there is a possibility he will go to Auteuil (Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil).”
The French Champion Hurdle is run over 3m1f in June and was last won by an Irish horse, Willie Mullins' Benie des Dieux in 2019.
