Sublime show from Sublimity

RACING/Champion Hurdle Report:John Carr trains Sublimity just 16 miles from Dublin's O'Connell Bridge but together at Cheltenham yesterday the pair catapulted each other to the dizzying summit of jump racing with success in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle.

Afterwards, as jockey Philip Carberry brought the 16 to 1 winner back to a tumultuous reception in front of the huge Irish crowd, there was plenty of talk about a "fairytale result" and it was not hard to see why.

Sublimity might be bred regally enough to have cost his former Derby winning owner Saeed Suhail 210,000 guineas as a yearling and been talented enough on the Flat to win two Listed races for Michael Stoute, but evidently his destiny was not to breed a multi-million-dollar dynasty.

Instead he wrote himself an undeniable place in racing history by overcoming inexperience and a comparatively low profile to win the opening-day festival feature by three lengths in a performance that left his connections momentarily speechless.

That Carr and Carberry quickly recovered to lucidly explain how they overturned a vintage crop of hurdling talent that included former champions like Brave Inca and Hardy Eustace only emphasised the substance behind Ireland's 17th Champion Hurdle victory.

Of course, Carberry (26) has had a lifetime to learn how to cope with success at the highest level. His father, Tommy, won practically every other race at this festival, and having an older brother like Paul is a lesson itself in race-riding and picking up big winners. As if that were not enough, less than an hour and a half after the feature, his sister Nina rode her second festival winner in the cross-county event on board Heads Onthe Ground.

In contrast, the closest Philip had previously came to victory here was an unlucky Supreme Novices Hurdle fourth on Sublimity that drew more flak than praise. An Irish National and a French Gold Cup last year soothed those wounds but yesterday's victory closed them.

However, for Carr, this was virgin territory in the extreme. It's less than two years since Sublimity had his first race for the Maynooth-based trainer in a mile Listed race up the Curragh. That too resulted in a shock 16 to 1 success that had one high-profile Flat trainer inquiring: "Who is this John Carr?"

The same refrain was being thrown around certain parts of Cheltenham yesterday but the home of the more egalitarian branch of the racing game again provided proof a lack of profile, and a relatively small stable of 30 horses, is no obstacle to upsetting the odds.

"These are what dreams are made of," Carr said of the now paltry £32,000 owner Bill Hennessy paid out for Sublimity once his career with Stoute was over. "If I had my way the plan would have been to run in the County Hurdle on Friday as we thought he'd be a bit of a certainty with 10.3. But Bill and his son Bob said no way would we wait to run in next year's Champion. They said the horse might be injured - or we might be dead."

It was Sublimity's mortality that was in question before Christmas when a virus left him very ill. But Hennessy, a Dublin businessman, and owner of the A1 pub in Artane, believes the resultant restricted campaign, with just one warm-up race, worked in the horse's favour.

"To win the way he did, with the preparation he had, was amazing. But he is best fresh so in hindsight it has all worked out perfectly," the owner said.

That certainly looked the case as Carberry crept around the back of the field as the supposed "big three" - Hardy Eustace, Brave Inca and Detroit City - eyeballed each other at the top of the hill.

Detroit City, backed in to 6 to 4 favourite, was the first to crack, and in behind Iktitaf exited at the third last before Brave Inca slowly ground out superiority over his old rival Hardy Eustace. Any satisfaction Ruby Walsh got from that though would have vanished at the sight of a motionless Carberry in behind.

"He's the best horse I've ever ridden and probably ever will. I can't imagine one better," said Carberry afterwards. "We had a dream run and I even had the luxury of taking a pull down the hill."

Brave Inca's trainer, Colm Murphy, struggled with an understandable mixture of pride and frustration and before ruling out another appearance this season for his star he said, "It's hard to believe he beat Hardy Eustace like that and still didn't win. But the winner is the new kid on the block and looked exceptional."

Afsoun deprived Hardy Eustace of third but the latter will go on to Punchestown. It is back to the drawing board, however, for Detroit City's team.

"He got stuffed and he can't be right. There's probably something amiss," said Philip Hobbs.

For Carr and Sublimity, there is the celebratory return to Maynooth, but also the happy knowledge that there is no going back now.