Sublimity pleases Carr as he heads for Champion challenge

Mar 4 2008 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

JOHN CARR is very happy with Sublimity ahead of bid for back-to-back victories in the Smurfit-Kappa last year’s Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival a week today.

John Carr’s gelding was a surprise winner of the two-mile championship contest last year at odds of 16-1. The eight-year-old is generally a 5-1 chance with most firms behind favourite Sizing Europe to retain his crown on the opening day of the Sublimity was fourth behind another of his rivals for glory next week, Osana, on his only run this season at Cheltenham in December. But following a 1m6f work-out at Leopardstown on Sunday alongside two stable-mates, Carr said everything was in place for next week’s contest.

Carr said: “It went very well and I could not be happier with the way he worked today, he sprinted away from them in the straight.”

Philip Carberry was in the saddle last year enjoyed and can’t wait to get back to the Festival.

Carberry added: “He quickened nicely in the straight and felt very good. In fact, he felt as good as I have ever felt him.”

Last year’s third Afsoun will run again next week and jockey Mick Fitzgerald is expecting him to go close again. The Nicky Henderson-trained six-year-old is a best-priced 33-1 with William Hill, Coral and Sportingbet.

He beat another Champion Hurdle contender Straw Bear at Sandown in early February and Fitzgerald said: “I said last year after I rode him that this horse wanted a trip. My mind hasn’t changed on that, I think the horse will stay three miles in time but at the moment he’s just showing too much pace early on in his races.”

He added: “He jumps very slick and he stays two miles very well, which is what you need around Cheltenham.

“You get an awful lot of horses that arrive there with a chance at the last, but it’s those that are in front at the end that count.

“For me, he’s just a really good, solid, staying two-miler. I’m not saying he’s going to win, but he will go there with a live each-way chance.”

Meanwhile dual Champion Hurdle winner, the Dessie Hughes-trained Hardy Eustace, will run in the 3m Ladbrokes World Hurdle a week on Thursday instead of the Champion.

TODAY’S NAP: Double Eagle (3.30pm Exeter).