The brilliant Dunguib is reported to be "absolutely bouncing" ahead of his tilt at Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham for which he is the red-hot 4-5 favourite .
Philip Fenton today ruled out an attempt at the Champion Hurdle this year and issued a warning to his rivals that he believes Dunguib was below his best when winning the Deloitte Novice Hurdle on the bridle.
Fenton told Attheraces: "For some reason - of course we were satisfied that he won - we just felt he wasn't as good as he could have been but he certainly is at the moment, he's absolutely bouncing. We don't think he was at his best at Leopardstown, he was a little bit flatter than he normally would be but at the moment he is a livewire."
"His jumping could have been an awful lot better at Leopardstown. We have schooled him since, not intensive or anything, and thankfully we are very happy with him.
"If his jumping had been slicker at Leopardstown we might have considered the Champion Hurdle, but on the jumping part of his performance we decided to stick to the novice route.
"I wouldn't call this an ordinary Champion Hurdle, there's an awful lot of good horses there so that is why we are sticking to the novice route. The Supreme Novices' Hurdle is where we are going and we have got tunnel vision for that, that's his race.
"We are of the opinion that he was kind of dossing through his last race, he was so switched off and some people may say why didn't Brian (O'Connell) set him alight at one or two of his hurdles.
"Brian's number one job that day was to get him settled and relaxed, he did that part of it."
