Jessica Harrington is to decide which event her stable star Jezki will line up in at the Cheltenham Festival "in the next few days" after he lost out to Tombstone in the Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park.
The former Champion Hurdle winner had been off the track for 20 months before winning at Navan last month, a win that saw him enter the equation for both the Champion Hurdle and Stayers Hurdle at the Festival.
Fourth behind Altior, Min and Buveur D'Air in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle last season, Gordon Elliott's seven-year-old Tombstone was only third to Jezki that day at Navan and had nearly three lengths to find.
The 9-4 chance took the lead off Rory O'Moore on the run to three out, with Jezki in his slipstream.
The 2-5 favourite closed up at the second-last but Tombstone pulled out more and while neither horse was particularly fluent at the final obstacle, Cooper's mount kept going to prevail by four lengths for Grade Three honours.
Harrington was not too downhearted, saying: "I'm perfectly happy with him. I knew it was a risk coming here on the ground. We know if we look back at all his races he doesn't like heavy ground.
"He beat Tombstone in Navan, but Tombstone was giving him weight and today at level weights it probably worked out exactly the same race.
"He doesn't like that ground and quite honestly, as long as he comes back in one piece I'm quite happy. We are going to go to Cheltenham, but what we go for we'll make that decision in the next few days.
"I suppose it's all what arrives on the day at Cheltenham."
Tombstone jockey Cooper, returning from a fractured pelvis sustained on New Year's Eve, said: "We always thought he was a fair horse, I was looking forward to him going chasing this year, but next year is another year and he did it very well.
"I watched the race in Navan back about 10 times and it didn't look like they went very quick, so today I was making sure of a strong-run race, I wasn't afraid to take it up at the third-last.
"The one thing I wanted to do was knock the speed out of Jezki, I know he stays three miles but he is still a Champion Hurdle winner and I had that in the back of my mind.
"One thing I do like is when he missed the last he picked up and went again, so he's definitely one to look forward to.
"He's got an engine and hopefully we can keep him right."
Elliott said: "I felt he'd improved a lot from Navan, and we were giving Jezki weight the last day. It was a good performance.
"He was going to go chasing, but he had a few setbacks. He'll go over fences next year.
"He could step up to two and a half miles, and the race at Aintree might be a possibility. The plan was to let him roll off the back straight and if he was good enough, he was good enough."
