‘Livewire’ Dunguib thrilling Fenton
Philip Fenton has categorically ruled out an attempt on the Champion Hurdle this year and issued a warning to his rivals that he believes Dunguib was below his best when winning the Deloitte Novice Hurdle on the bridle.
Fenton also moved to quash any theory that Dunguib’s sloppy jumping on his last start might have been caused by sore shins.
“Thankfully he has never suffered from sore shins, even as a younger horse so you can eliminate that,” said Fenton.
“His jumping could have been an awful lot better at Leopardstown. We have schooled him since, not intensive or anything, and thankfully we are very happy with him.
“If his jumping had been slicker at Leopardstown we might have considered the Champion Hurdle, but on the jumping part of his performance we decided to stick to the novice route.
“I wouldn’t call this an ordinary Champion Hurdle, there’s an awful lot of good horses there so that is why we are sticking to the novice route.
“The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is where we are going and we have got tunnel vision for that, that’s his race.
“We are of the opinion that he was kind of dossing through his last race, he was so switched off and some people may say why didn’t Brian (O’Connell) set him alight at one or two of his hurdles.
“Brian’s number one job that day was to get him settled and relaxed, he did that part of it.
“For some reason at Leopardstown, of course we were satisfied that he won, we just felt he wasn’t as good as he could have been but he certainly is at the moment, he’s absolutely bouncing.
“We don’t think he was at his best at Leopardstown, he was a little bit flatter than he normally would be but at the moment he is a livewire,” he told At the Races.
Dunguib is one of the shortest-priced favourites of the showcase meeting and the biggest price available is 4-5.
