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Harty content to bypass Leopardstown with Irish Panther

By Racing TV

Last Updated: Thu 29 Jan 2026

Eddie Harty felt the ground at Leopardstown this weekend would be too soft for Irish Panther to do himself justice in the Goffs Irish Arkle Novice Chase.

The nine-year-old has taken his form to a new level this season, making Romeo Coolio pull out all the stops in a Grade One at Christmas.

Harty, who trains in partnership with his son Patrick, believes Irish Panther was just outstayed by Gordon Elliott’s runner over the two-mile-one-furlong trip at Leopardstown and a repeat attempt over the same course and distance on soft ground would have been asking too much.

“I know they have said the ground has dried to yielding to soft on Thursday but it is going to be a lot softer than that, especially over the last half a mile,” said Harty.

“That is the most important one so we decided not to risk him.

“There’s another inch or more of rain to come and I thought he got outstayed the last day by Gordon’s horse and Einstein’s definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

“It’s two-miles-one at Leopardstown and for me we got outstayed, had it been two miles we’d have all been saying ‘look at this horse, he hasn’t come off the bridle’.

“Cheltenham is bang on two miles so we’ll head straight to Cheltenham now, fingers crossed all goes well between now and then.”

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