HARDY EUSTACE PROFILE:IT HAS taken him five years to get to today's Ladbrokes World Hurdle but Hardy Eustace has finally made the race that way back in 2003 looked tailor-made for any further Cheltenham ambitions he might have.

It's hard to imagine now the emotional roller-coaster on which Hardy Eustace would take so many people when he and Kieran Kelly passed the post first in the 2003 SunAlliance Novice Hurdle.

Just months later Kelly was tragically killed in a fall at Kilbeggan that shook Irish racing's close-knit community to the core and guaranteed his most famous equine partner would always hold a special place in a lot of hearts.

But who was to know back then how Hardy Eustace would carve out an almost legendary niche in modern Cheltenham history?

A shock Champion Hurdle victory in 2004 had its credibility set in stone by a dramatic defeat of Harchibald and Brave Inca 12 months later. The latter got his revenge in 2006 when Hardy again hit the frame in third and he missed out on the same position last year by just inches.

It's as glittering a Champion Hurdle CV as any horse has achieved in modern racing history, and one that Dessie Hughes could hardly have imagined.

"As a novice there's no doubt we were thinking of him in terms of being a stayer. If we weren't, we'd have run him in the Supreme that year instead of the SunAlliance.

"There was no doubting his stamina then. He won going away," the Curragh trainer remembers.

"But then he developed some serious speed. He got loads of pace as he got older and we made the most of it," he adds with a characteristic understatement.

That development has made Hardy Eustace one of the most popular horses of recent years. But it also means that today's feature over three miles represents a real stamina challenge.

There is a degree of uncertainty about it that will unsettle the horse's many fans.

One thing Hughes is sure of is that his stable star will have to truly stay in order to win.

A Stayers Hurdle winner as a jockey in 1976 on board Bit Of A Jig, Hughes says: "Non-stayers do not win and we are in the dark a little bit. If he does, then we must have a helluva chance.

"It looked to me like he stayed when he ran in the Long Walk at Ascot but they will go a lot faster at Cheltenham and it will be a much better race. It will be a different story."

The plus point is that in Hardy Eustace, Hughes knows he is dealing with an exceptional talent. For comparisons, he has to go back to the 1970s again and another double Champion Hurdle winner he rode.

"Monksfield and him are very alike: both triers, both honest, both kind horses.

"Monksfield won his Champion Hurdles the same way. In fact the year I rode him he made all.

"Then he went to Liverpool over two miles and five and won easily. That was really his trip, same as Hardy Eustace," he says.

When he looks at today's race, there is only one opponent that really worries Hughes.

Inglis Drever has a Cheltenham pedigree of his own to boast of and he will be in his comfort zone when the going gets tough in the last quarter mile.

Apart from the reigning champion, however, Hughes sees nothing to be scared of.

"I think on that Ascot run with Lough Derg we hold the others. We gave Lough Derg an awful start that day and I'd like to think we will beat him this time.

"On a line through Lough Derg, we have a good chance against Wichita Lineman and Blazing Bailey. Inglis Drever does stand out - but you should never be afraid of one horse," he argues.

Despite Inglis Drever's hat-trick attempt, there is little doubt that Hardy Eustace will be the sentimental favourite, especially among Irish fans.

The opportunity it gives Conor O'Dwyer to successfully bring the curtain down on a memorable Cheltenham riding career will only add to that.

But it isn't just sentiment that will propel the veteran pair this afternoon.

"I don't think at eleven he can be quite as good as he was," Hughes argues.

"He's very near it though. His runs this year prove that. He really is some horse, and I'm very lucky to have him."

Just as his thousands of fans are lucky to get another look at him around Cheltenham.