Progressive Rebel Fitz has any amount of scope for improvement
That is essentially many, many weeks away yet and the old notion it all begins with Listowel is no longer valid, nor has it been for a number of years.
This has been a rather boring flat season, dragged down by horrible weather and ground which has been totally unsuitable for the vast majority of horses.
But gazing at Rebel Fitz confirmed, as if it was needed anyway, that a potential top-class horse over jumps captures the imagination in a way flat horses, Frankel being an honourable exception, can never do.
The Cork performance was almost a thing of beauty. There is a style and swagger about the seven-year-old that is most endearing.
It is no surprise his trainer, Michael Winters, has put on hold sending Rebel Fitz over fences.
He has developed into one of the best hurdlers in the country and Winters has to find out just how far he can go at that game, before deciding on a different path.
Outside of Rebel Fitz simply toying with decent opposition at Cork, what was very striking was watching him in the winner’s enclosure after the race.
He has really become a most imposing individual and gives the impression there is any amount of scope for improvement.
Already there is talk, not from his trainer, mind you, that the seven-year-old could go all the way and become a live Champion Hurdle contender.
That is premature and far too early to be talking in such terms. History has taught us that there is a massive gulf between summer and winter racing.
No, not until Rebel Fitz has crossed swords with some of those who have been hibernating for many months can we expect to get a true handle his worth.
But for now connections are more than entitled to dream. He currently has a rating of 155, up 10lbs in total for Galway and Cork.
So where does that leave him? Well the former champion hurdler, Hurricane Fly, is rated 173, 18lbs above Rebel Fitz.
That’s a fair old gap, but far from insurmountable. Rebel Fitz already has a big following and watching his progress is going to be fascinating.
If he does eventually fall short of what is required to be ultra-competitive at the very top of the hurdling tree then so be it.
But chasing, surely his true calling, will always be lurking in the shadows and he certainly appears to have what it takes to go a very long way indeed at that game.
WHEN you think of Tyrone, at least in a sporting sense, the first thing that comes to mind is top-class footballers.
But this is a county that now has, at least potentially, a new sporting hero in trainer Andy Oliver.
The flat trainers’ championship sees him sitting, almost astonishingly, in sixth place, with only Aidan O’Brien, Dermot Weld, John Oxx, Jim Bolger and David Wachman ahead of him.
Oliver is ahead of Kevin Prendergast, Michael Halford and Ger Lyons and that is testament to the massive progress he is making.
He’s arrived almost under the radar, but plenty of us have been sitting up and taking notice of late.
Last weekend, though, absolutely hammered home the point that this is a trainer going places-and fast.
He won the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday with First Cornerstone and that was a real achievement.
But producing Punch Your Weight the day before, also at the Curragh, to land the Cambridgeshire was the real eye-catcher.
A horse such as Punch Your Weight had no right to win an 18-runner, savagely competitive handicap such as this, at least that is what all logic would tell you.
He had only run once previously, taking a lowly Cork maiden by a length and a quarter from Fastidious.
Then Fastidious went to Leopardstown and trailed in a well-beaten fourth behind Circle, in what was another modest affair.
The Cork form was essentially worthless and, anyway, most trainers would have sent Punch Your Weight down an entirely different route from the Cambridgeshire.
But Oliver concluded that tilting at windmills was the correct approach and the €57,000 first prize was on its way to Tyrone.
We will, in the future, ignore runners from this quarter at our peril.
