O'Brien sweet on Valira

Michael O’Brien thinks it will take “a good horse” to beat his Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices’ Hurdle fancy De Valira at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

The son of Shantou lowered the colours of the highly-touted Catch Me in the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas.

With one more start in the pipeline before March, O’Brien is hoping the five-year-old can live up to his home reputation.

“He’s a good horse. He’s a horse with a lot of pace. He’s got plenty of speed and he travels really well in his races. He’s a classy horse,” he said.

“We have two races in mind for him but he will probably go to Leopardstown on Hennessy day for a novice over two and a quarter miles.

“The target is the Supreme. That is the only race at Cheltenham he will have an entry for. He won’t be entered for the longer race (Ballymore Properties).

“He’s got to move up another grade again and it was hard to tell from that race the other day as they went no gallop.

“But he’s a speed horse and I imagine he will be a bit better horse when he gets better ground,” he told At The Races.

“The young lad (Robert Dunne) messed up on him in his bumper. He should have won that day as well and he would be unbeaten.

“It is going to take a good horse to beat him, I would have thought.”

De Valira is as low as 7-1 with Bet Direct for the Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.