PHILIP FENTON

Weblog: Living the Dunguib dream, for now at least

Time to find out if the doubters are right

THE wait is over and we're all very excited to be heading to the Cheltenham Festival again with a horse like Dunguib - we're really very privileged.

In racing, you always have to be looking for what could go wrong and we have with Dunguib, all the way along, and everything has gone unbelievably smoothly.

He was a little bit slow to eat when he first arrived at Jim Wilson's yard, but he has been perfect since. We've done more or less the same with him this time as we did last year - walk outs for a day or two then just a few light canters in a field nearby - and he's settled in very well.

Cheltenham has been very kind to us and promised us a good-sized box in a quiet corner of the Irish yard for Tuesday morning and we'll aim to get him to the track for 11am.

Of course, he'll be on the go from then, but we should be able to give him a few breaks in the box. As long as Jamie [Cody, head lad] waits in it with him, he should settle.

Looking at the declarations, before heading to Waterford Airport to catch our flight, I saw that all the fancied ones stood their ground, so we have our work cut out, but it's all up to him now.

With regards to those who keep going on about his terrible jumping at Leopardstown, can you please look back at his other races. He was ridden differently last time andperhaps became too switched off, so he wasn't concentrating.

Brian O'Connell described him as lackadaisical that day and, well, that's what we wanted him to be - relaxed, settled and switched off, something we have never been able to get him to do at the races.

Whether we can do the same in the Supreme Novices' I don't know, but we'll certainly try.

We must say a big thank you to everyone at Cheltenham racecourse and Jim Wilson for being so accommodating as, while he is a cooler type of horse this season, he can still get hyped up and without abit of help we could not get him to the start in such a good frame of mind.

Thanks too to all his supporters - those on here and who have sent us letters and emails - it's nice to know we're not the only ones who think as much of him and I hope you'll be behind him on Tuesday.

Whatever happens, it will be a crazy day and I will be better off updating you here on Wednesday when the head is a bit clearer.