PHILIP FENTON

Weblog: Living the Dunguib dream, for now at least

All went smoothly - except the race itself

ALL went smoothly except the race itself on Tuesday.
Dunguib behaved brilliantly throughout the preliminaries. We didn't even need to use the ear plugs. He was very relaxed in the stable yard and in the parade ring and went to post okay, too. He was lit up once Brian O'Connell got the leg up, as usual, but kept his cool.

Unfortunately, the pace was not as strong as we had thought it would be. He travelled well enough but missed a hurdle at the top of the hill and, jumping the third-last, we were probably fighting a losing battle, even though we were getting there, slowly but surely.

Brian felt he was a little wide turning in, that they got a couple of lengths on him turning down the hill and he didn't make the headway we all thought he would.

We were saying to ourselves as they came out of the back straight that he was maybe further back than he would have wanted to be, but that was the luck of the draw, we got beaten by two good horses in Menorah and Get Me Out Of Here and there's nothing we can do about it now. The ground wasn't an issue either, as I think he's actually better on it.

The main thing is that he appears to be sound this morning and is safely on his way home.

I would like to stress that I have no criticism of Brian whatsoever. It was one blip and I have a world of confidence in him, so yes, he will continue to ride Dunguib and will be on board should we take up that engagement on April 20 in the Grade 1 Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle at the Punchestown festival.

While Dunguib heads back to Glenbower hill, we stuck around to enjoy St Patrick's Day at Cheltenham and arrived complete with our finest shamrocks.

We all had a very late night on Tuesday anyway - even though things didn't go to plan - and were most looking forward to seeing Rite Of Passage win the Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle. I suppose that's our luck that he was beaten, but he ran well and as a bonus it's a little boost for Dunguib's form.

Well, there's still plenty of Guinness to be drunk and craic to be had, so thank you again for your support and good luck for the rest of Cheltenham.