Istabraq arthritis rumour is denied by O'Brien

RACING/News: Aidan O'Brien yesterday confirmed Istabraq to be still on track for Cheltenham and poured cold water on a British newspaper report that the triple champion hurdler is suffering from arthritis.

"You know what I think of rumours," O'Brien insisted. "If there ever was anything wrong with the horse I would tell you." A report in the Guardian suggested Istabraq has arthritis and added that the horse has not had a significant gallop since winning at Christmas. It also suggested that was the reason for Istabraq's recent weakness in the ante-post Champion Hurdle market.

However, O'Brien scoffed at such reports and repeated his usual bulletin of "so far - so good" with the country's most popular racehorse.

It was confirmed yesterday that Limestone Lad will skip Sunday's AIG Champion Hurdle and instead run in Saturday's Bank Of Ireland Hurdle at Naas.

"He blew a fair bit after working yesterday and we haven't got enough work into him since he got a slight over-reach at Leopardstown to run him in the AIG," Michael Bowe said.

The plan for Limestone Lad is to go for Navan's Boyne Hurdle after this weekend and then he will target the Bonusprint Stayers' Hurdle, for which he is a 7 to 1 chance.

It has also been confirmed that Charlie Swan will ride Liss A Paoraigh in the Sunday's AIG Hurdle, for which Paddy Power bet: 13/8 Ned Kelly, 5/2 Geos, 100/30 Liss A Paoraigh, 8 The French Furze, 10 Milligan, 16 bar.

Supreme Glory was yesterday cut to 16 to 1 favouritism from 20 to 1 by Corals for the Martell Grand National following continued support for the Pat Murphy-trained gelding.

The nine-year-old won the Coral Eurobet Welsh National at Chepstow in December to earn his prominent position in the betting for the Aintree marathon on April 6th, which has attracted a modern-day record of 144 entries.

"Everything is going according to plan," Murphy said.

Florida Pearl and the Ted Walsh trained pair, Papillon and Rince Ri, are among the leading 26 Irish-trained entries, with others being the Tony Martin-trained Irish Grand National winner Davids Lad and Arthur Moore's Lyreen Wonder.

The other Irish entries are: Alexander Banquet, Call Me Dara, Church Place, Clonard Prince, Cregg House, Delgany Royal, Dovaly, Hollybank Buck, Linden's Lotto. Montana Glen, More Than A Stroll, Nicholls Cross, Nuzum Road Makers, Over The Furze, Shannon Gale, Sheltering, Spot Thedifference, Super Franky, The Bunny Boiler, This Is Serious and

Wicked Crack.