Racing News: Our Conor set for summer break

Our Conor will miss the Punchestown Festival.

Triumph Hurdle hero Our Conor will head off on his summer break after trainer Dessie Hughes opted to skip an intended run in Saturday's AES Champion Four Year Old Hurdle at Punchestown...

Favourite with some for next season's Champion Hurdle, Our Conor would have faced very testing conditions in the Grade One heat and Hughes was not keen to give his stable star a hard race.

With his stunning Cheltenham display still fresh in the memory, Our Conor, rated 165p by Timeform, will now enjoy a well-deserved holiday.

"It was very deep there yesterday, it's rained again and it will rain some more," said Hughes.

"There's no need to run him, he doesn't need to prove anything so he'll go out to grass now.

"I've no real plan for next year, I imagine he'll have a run on the Flat first somewhere.

"It's no coincidence that his best performance came at Cheltenham, which is the best ground he's raced on. His worst performance came at Listowel when he was well beaten by Inis Mean and that was the worst ground he'd raced on."

Hughes also had a bit of a setback regarding the Bet365 Gold Cup as Deal Done missed the cut for the big race.

The trainer added: "I declared Deal Done because he loves good ground and it will be nice at Sandown. He's gone over there but he didn't get in, it's only 20 runners now and it used to be 25."

Punchestown Race Cards only 2 at timeform.com!