Trainer Andrew Lynch remains keen on a trip to the Cheltenham Festival with Zabana despite his disappointing recent effort at Leopardstown.

The high-class hurdler was considered a major contender for the Grade One Flogas Novice Chase after impressing on his debut over fences at Leopardstown's Christmas meeting, but finished a distant fourth behind the Willie Mullins-trained Outlander

Lynch feels the testing conditions were to blame for that below-par effort and expects him to raise his game on the likely sounder surface he would encounter at Prestbury Park.

"He came out of the race well. We just gave him a handy week last week and he is bouncing now again," said the trainer.

"Davy (Russell) wasn't really hard on him once he wasn't handling the ground. The ground was too gluey for him, it was too sticky. He jumped bad, too, he was never as good as he was the time before.

"He is back real good now and I'm very pleased with him. We will wait for better ground.

"I'm nearly certain we'll go to Cheltenham with him, but I'm not 100 per cent sure yet. We will give him a racecourse spin at Leopardstown on February 28 if it dries out a bit and we'll take it from there then."

Zabana is a best priced 16-1 for the JLT Novices' Chase in the Cotswolds next month, but he also has the option of the longer RSA Chase and Lynch is not ruling out a return to the smaller obstacles for the World Hurdle.

He said: "He is in three races at Cheltenham and we are not sure yet which he'll go for."