Racing: Justified has been found to be suffering from a viral infection after disappointing connections when only third to Missed That at Leopardstown.
Abnormalities have been found in the horse's blood much to the relief of trainer Eamonn Sheehy, who was convinced the seven-year-old failed to give his true running in the Baileys Arkle Perpetual Cup.
"I suppose it's good news in theory, his blood was wrong. He's got an inner viral infection," said the County Kilkenny trainer.
"His fibrinogen was high and his potassium count was low so at least we have something positive back to work on. It was the second half of his results that came back negative.
"He'll have a little bit of treatment today and be looked at again. We'll take some more blood from him in four or five days to see if the levels are back to normal. Hopefully he'll be right by then."
Justified had Sunday's runner-up Arteea well behind in fourth when winning at Punchestown in November and had been unbeaten in all his three completed outings over fences before Sunday.
"On the formbook his run wasn't right. Arteea couldn't change that kind of form around, he couldn't have improved that much," Sheehy continued.
"I'll have to discuss with the owners whether we go straight to Cheltenham or go to Navan first for the Flyingbolt Novice Chase (on February 19). It'll be one of the two.
"We'll see how his blood is and how the horse is."
Justified is now as big as 16-1 with some layers for the Arkle at Cheltenham on March 14th.
PA