Fenton bullish over bumper star

Philip Fenton is in confident mood as he puts the finishing touches to his Weatherbys Champion Bumper hope Dunguib.

The six-year-old is unbeaten in two starts this season, most recently running away with a Grade Two event at Navan by 13 lengths.

Fenton is set to give his stable star a racecourse gallop later this week and is looking forward to seeing him line up at the Cheltenham Festival in two weeks' time.

‘He's in brilliant form and all being well he will have a racecourse gallop somewhere this week then that will be the main part of his preparation over,’ said Fenton, whose charge is vying for favouritism in an ante-post market dominated by Willie Mullins.

‘We'll keep him ticking over but he is a light-framed horse and doesn't need an awful lot of work.

‘Brian (O'Connell) will be riding him at Cheltenham. It's a shame the ground is going to be as good as it is and I'd be a little bit apprehensive about running him on watered ground.

‘It's been quite testing on his last couple of runs but he is by Presenting and is a good-actioned horse so you would hope he would handle decent ground as well.

‘I've ridden plenty of bumper horses and I promise you I don't get carried away, but I really do think this horse is something else. He is very, very good.

‘We'll have to watch the Willie Mullins horses as he has some unbelievable firepower at the moment, but hopefully we'll make a race of it anyway.’