Sublimity set for Punchestown test

Sublimity will try to improve on his Cheltenham Festival fourth in the VC Bet Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown later this month.

John Carr has confirmed his stable star on course for the Grade One contest on April 25 and is confident he can do even better than when beaten three lengths by Noland in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

“Our horse is very good and will be better on a flat track,” said Carr.

“We did fancy him at Cheltenham but with a horse falling early on and the loose horse hampering him at the top of the hill, we were unlucky in a way.

“I am not saying we would have won but we would have been a bit closer.”

The sponsors rate the former Sir Michael Stoute inmate as a 6-1 chance for the two-mile race, with Supreme second and subsequent impressive Aintree winner Straw Bear the 7-4 market leader.

“Liverpool would have suited him but we decided at Cheltenham that we would train him for Punchestown and then put him away for the year,” Carr added.

“He gave me a great thrill and I was so nervous that I hardly managed to see any of the race at Cheltenham.

“I think he has got a big race in him and we will take him away twice to work before Punchestown.

“He will go to my neighbours tomorrow and then hopefully go to Fairyhouse to gallop after racing on Wednesday, and that will be him ready for Punchestown, where Philip Carberry will ride again.”

VC Bet Champion Novice Hurdle, sponsors bet: 7-4 Straw Bear, 7-2 Sweet Wake, 4-1 Mounthenry, 6-1 Sublimity, 8-1 Parliament Square, Iktifaf, Jazz Messenger, O’Muircheartaigh, 14-1 Desert Quest, 20-1 Welcome Stranger, Boychuk, Senorita Rumbalita, 33-1 bar.