Supreme Novices' Hurdle: Dundalk still on Steps agenda

The Cheltenham Festival / Timeform / 08 February 2012 / Leave a Comment

Jessica Harrington: Trainer of Steps To Freedom and Oscars Well.

"He'll run in Dundalk on Friday week in a mile-and-a-half race and he then may go to Leopardstown for a gallop after racing on March 4..."

Current Supreme Novices' Hurdle favourite Steps To Freedom remains on course to have a run on the Flat at Dundalk on Friday February 17...

Unbeaten in three starts over hurdles, Jessica Harrington's six-year-old has plenty going for him with the Festival in mind, not least that he is already a Cheltenham winner having struck there in November.

Harrington has given her exciting youngster, rated 144p by Timeform, a winter break since but he will soon be back in competitive action.

"He did a breeze on Friday and worked yesterday (Tuesday) and I'm very happy with him," the trainer told At The Races.

"He'll run in Dundalk on Friday week in a mile-and-a-half race and he then may go to Leopardstown for a gallop after racing on March 4. It depends how he comes out of the race in Dundalk.

"He was out in the field for six weeks and then we brought him back in and we've just been building him back up. He seems to be fresh and well.

"The great thing was we got him to Cheltenham in November and he travelled over well and he's got experience of the course now. So when he goes back there in March, he'll know where he is."

Steps To Freedom is currently trading as the [10.5] favourite for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle.

Another major Festival hope for Harrington is Oscars Well, who bears a Timeform rating of 164, and would have gone very close to winning last season's Neptune Novices' Hurdle but for stumbling at the final flight.

His latest run behind Hurricane Fly in the Irish Champion Hurdle was his best of the season and Harrington is hopeful her charge can get closer to the reigning champion granted better ground for the Champion Hurdle itself.

"He stepped up again and he's been improving all winter," Harrington added.

"He has a high cruising speed and I'm not saying he'll ever beat Hurricane Fly, but as I've said to the owners, with some reasonable luck we'll run into a place in the Champion Hurdle.

"I think he ticks all the boxes as he likes good ground, he seems to like Cheltenham and he loves races that are run at a fast pace.

"Hurricane Fly is a very good horse. He's probably one of the best hurdlers we've seen since Istabraq, if not better.

"He's won 10 Grade Ones now and that's an amazing record."

Oscars Well can presently be backed at [18.5] for the Champion Hurdle, with Hurricane Fly heading the market at [1.96].