Sheehy waits on justified

Eamonn Sheehy was tonight waiting for the final results on a blood test in the hope of discovering the reason behind Justified’s disappointing run at Leopardstown on Sunday.

The seven-year-old scoped clean after finishing third to Missed That in the Baileys Arkle Perpetual Cup and had a blood test this morning, the early results being all-clear.

“I’ve had some of the results back and they’re clear so far,” said Sheehy. “The haematology and whatever are all okay. I’m waiting on the final result to come through.”

The County Kilkenny trainer had expected a better performance from Justified, who had been unbeaten in all his three previous completed outings over fences.

“He scoped well after the race and we took blood from him this morning,” he went on.

“I can’t find anything wrong with him but obviously it wasn’t his true running with Arteea (runner-up) on his form before.

“I hope I find something wrong because it would be kind of disappointing if I didn’t.

“What we do with him next depends on what the results are. We may have to go to Navan now for the Flyingbolt Novice Chase (on February 19) and see if it was just a blip or what.

“If it doesn’t go right at Navan then we’d probably have to skip the Arkle at Cheltenham.

“If he gets back on track at Navan then it would be the Arkle.”

Justified was pushed out from around 7-1 to twice those odds in places with the leading bookmakers for the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy at the Festival on March 14.