A flat career seems the obvious route now after that – Murphy’s comment of ‘I dropped him in because I wanted him to learn what it is like to be in amongst horses in a flat race as a black type race would be the obvious next target if his next race was on the flat’ is telling.
He seemed to have no trouble with the faster than optimal first few furlongs and while the pace slowed mid race he still picked up best and clocked under 12s for each of his last 3F, hitting a top speed of 39.95mph and a finishing percentage of 109.72. One might argue that a even stronger run race would play even more to his strengths as the further he went the better he looked.
If he had not already won a Champion Hurdle then you might be tempted to go back hurdling but going forward I would rather connections be of the mindset of thinking what might have happened if we went back to hurdling rather than, we should have never risked going back to hurdling. As I have said before you can’t keep challenging the law of averages…….three heavy falls have resulted in no serious injuries other than being stiff and sore for a few days but if you keep pushing it………
There are plenty of options available to him at 12F, 14F & 16F range in either group or handicap races and until he shows he is not of that standard then you would be silly not to at least give it a go. Fast ground in mid summer might be a bit of a worry (he did change his legs a couple of times once hitting the front) but he has a rather fluent action and with watering policies being what they are you would probably be ok on quicker going.
Lets also not forget that there are a lot of weaker groups races dotted around (Germany in particular) that don’t take as much winning so this performance has opened up a whole lot of new doors for him going forward.