Gambled on De Valira ruled out of Champion

DE VALIRA, the medium of an ante-post gamble, will miss tomorrow’s Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle at the opening stage of the Cheltenham Festival.

Supported from 25-1 to 14-1, reportedly on the back of some spectacular homework, he cut himself while schooling on the Curragh on Friday morning.

Trainer, Michael O’Brien, said yesterday: “He caught a hind leg on a hurdle and scraped himself at the front of his hock.