FAIRYHOUSE FALL-OUT: BRAVE INCA'S dramatic weekend comeback has encouraged hopes that the 2006 champion hurdler could be as good as ever and is back as a live candidate to reclaim his crown at Cheltenham in March.
Trainer Colm Murphy yesterday reported his stable star has emerged unscathed from Sunday's Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse, when he gave best only to the winner, Catch Me, after the last flight.
Bookmaker reaction was to install Brave Inca as a 25 to 1 outsider for the Champion Hurdle and to include him in betting for the three-mile World Hurdle.
But Murphy indicated that a drop back to two miles will be next for Brave Inca in the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown in four weeks.
He also said he believes the horse could be as good as ever despite having spent a year-and-a-half on the sidelines.
"I'd like to think he is. On that run on Sunday it seems he is," Murphy said. "Obviously I had been hoping he would finish somewhere on the premises. If he'd finished fourth or fifth I would have been thrilled. But to be disputing it going to the last was something we are over the moon about."
The only horse to regain the Champion Hurdle crown is Comedy Of Errors (1973-75), but Brave Inca will have to bridge a three-year gap if he makes it back to Cheltenham.
"He is a year older now - but so are we all," Murphy added.
"He is a horse who has been minded with just four or five runs a year."
Concerns have been raised about Brave Inca maintaining his rate of progress after such an encouraging first run back, but Murphy dismissed any fears of a "bounce factor" at Leopardstown over Christmas.
"If we were running him back in two weeks' time it would be in the back of your mind, but there are four weeks to Christmas. I don't think we'll be in trouble," he said.
"It's not as if he has been doing nothing. He could have run at Punchestown last April but we just left him alone for a while longer."
One man who could be back in the frame to ride Brave Inca over Christmas is Ruby Walsh, who has revealed he is hopeful of returning to action possibly as early as the Boylesports meeting at Cheltenham the week after next.
Walsh had to have his spleen removed following a bad fall at the Paddy Power meeting at Cheltenham and missed out on both Trafford Lad and Hurricane Fly at Fairyhouse at the weekend.
He was also in the frame to ride Brave Inca, and was impressed with the horse he rode to finish runner-up to Sublimity in the 2007 Champion Hurdle.
"Brave Inca ran a cracker," Walsh said. "It's great to see him back. He's a great horse, but obviously Catch Me was more race fit and that made the difference."
Dusty Sheehy also had an upbeat report on his Drinmore-winner Trafford Lad, who now figures among the leading fancies for the SunAlliance Chase at Cheltenham.
But Sheehy warned: "We will have a look at the Powers Gold Cup in the Spring because it is worth a lot of money and there's no point leaving it behind if we are capable of winning it. But I would love to have a winner at Cheltenham, so we will see.
"Bar Tranquil Sea, I think everything else seemed to run to par on Sunday. We have beaten Forpadydeplasterer twice now, so there are no excuses for him."
