Soaring Glory Supreme plan yet to be confirmed

Soaring Glory is still not a definite runner at the Cheltenham Festival.

Jonjo O’Neill’s six-year-old was an impressive winner of the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury last time out, and is fourth favourite for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle which opens the meeting on Tuesday.

However, O’Neill and owner Pat Hickey have still to have the definitive conversation which will decide whether or not he makes the short journey to Prestbury Park from the trainer’s Jackdaws Castle base.

“I need to speak to Pat. He wasn’t mad keen on going (to Cheltenham), and I’m lukewarm about it,” said O’Neill.

“We just haven’t discussed it. We’ll probably leave him in and have a look, so that’s about as much as I can say really. There’s no real reason as such, other than Pat’s not a big fan. He loves Cheltenham, but he’d love to be able to go with a runner and enjoy it (in person).”

Soaring Glory’s Betfair win propelled him near to the top of the Supreme market, but O’Neill hopes he will be a star of the future as well as present.

“He’s a grand horse, but there’s plenty of time with him really,” he added.

“If he goes then great, but if he doesn’t then we’ll wait for another day. That’s what we were saying before Newbury, and we never really discussed it since, so we’ll just see.”