O'Brien festival hope Housesofparliament likely to miss rest of season

Housesofparliament, Joseph O'Brien's one-time ante-post favourite for the JCB Triumph Hurdle, is likely to miss Cheltenham and the rest of his juvenile campaign after suffering an injury when disappointing at Leopardstown on Sunday, his trainer has revealed.

The St Leger third suffered a cut when finishing seventh of eight, some 43 lengths behind Mega Fortune, in the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile Hurdle.

O'Brien, who also saddled the sixth, Bhutan, and last, Sword Fighter, said: "Housesofparliament is likely to be out of Cheltenham and probably the rest of the season. He suffered a nasty cut to his knee in the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown. I'm not sure as to when exactly the incident took place in the race.

"It's quite a bad cut and we will need to give him a few weeks before re-examining it. Hopefully he will be ok but at this stage I would say it is likely that he will be out for the remainder of the season now.

"Bhutan was having just his first start over hurdles at Leopardstown and should learn from that but Sword Fighter was probably a little bit disappointing."

O'Brien still has Landofhopeandglory, whose price ranges from 10-1 to 20-1, for the Cheltenham Grade 1 and added: "Landofhopeandglory remains an exciting horse in the juvenile hurdle ranks but he will need to run once more before we make any Cheltenham plans for him. We plan on running him in a Grade 3 juvenile hurdle at Fairyhouse later this month and then make a plan from there."

Plans up in the air for West Coast Time

O'Brien also trains West Coast Time, who is fifth in the betting for the Weatherbys Champion Bumper.

He chased home the ante-post favourite Carter McKay at Naas on Saturday and O'Brien revealed plans for him were also undecided: "Things are just a little bit up in the air with him at present," he said.

"I thought he ran well behind a very good horse in Carter McKay at Naas on Saturday but it was a very messy race and we are just not sure whether Cheltenham will be on the agenda or not for him now. We will make a decision closer to the time."