McManus swoops for Corbetts Cross but participation at Cheltenham is unsure

JP McManus has swooped for another of Paul Byrne and Emmet Mullins' rising stars and added another Cheltenham Festival favourite to his portfolio with the acquisition of exciting novice hurdler Corbetts Cross. 

Byrne had himself only recently bought Corbetts Cross from the horse's original trainer Eugene O'Sullivan but in two starts in his colours the five-year-old son of Gamut has shot to prominence. After winning a maiden hurdle at Limerick over Christmas, he bolted up on his handicap debut over three miles at Fairyhouse in January. Last Sunday, on his debut for Mullins, he dropped back to two miles to secure a Grade 2 success from Found A Fifty in the Johnstown Novice Hurdle at Naas.

Corbetts Cross has since been catapulted to the head of the market for the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle, the only race he is entered in a Cheltenham, but Berry was noncommittal about the general 7-2 chance going there.