Trainer Tom George is very excited to be able to unleash his star hurdler and last seasons winner of the Supreme Novices Hurdle, Summerville Boy in the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth where he will have a chance to take on the big boy hurdlers over 2 miles.
The Grade 1 winner is certainly being thrown in at the deep end for his seasonal reappearance and will be up against dual Cheltenham Festival Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D'Air who is also having his seasonal Debut and the Gordon Elliott trained superstar Samcro could also feature.
Summerville Boy's festival win was the first race of the four day meeting but was arguably the most exciting of the week just getting up on the line to land the spoils from Arkle favourite Kalashnikov.
(Credit At The Races) Tom George said: “He had a good summer, he’s been back in since the middle of July and since then we’ve been gradually stepping him up and he’s ready to go now.
“Hopefully it will be a good platform for the rest of the season.
“We had a few mistakes in the latter part of his races, but essentially he’s a good jumper. I think he’s got an unbelievable amount of talent, he was just looking around, so it’s greenness more than anything.
“We’ve been happy with his schooling so I don’t see it being a problem.”
The Supreme winners stablemate at George's yard is Black Op and he was a game second behind Samcro in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham in March and the trainer feels like he knows what to expect when coming up against the Gigginstown owned six year old
George Added: Black Op was the only horse to get near to Samcro and he got the last wrong that day. Without that, he’d have put it up to him, but he’s a different horse completely to Summerville Boy so we’ve a good idea where we stand. We’ll just keep that to ourselves for the time being!
“Obviously they have been talking Samcro up as the best to come out of Ireland for some time and if that’s the case, then we’ll be happy to come behind him, but we’ll give it our best shot and see how we get on.
"We couldn’t be happier, he’s in at the deep end but hopefully we’ll have something to build on.”
(Credit At The Races)