Galileo claims SunAlliance He may not be quite the class of his illustrious Irish namesake but the Polish-bred Galileo proved a star in his own right when an impressive winner of the Royal & SunAlliance Novices` Hurdle at Cheltenham today.A Polish St Leger winner on the flat, the Tom George trained gelding only made his jumping debut 18 days ago, but defied his inexperience to land the 2m5f contest at 12-1.Lanzerac (66-1) made his intentions clear from early on as he bounced out and set a good gallop.He still held the advantage until three out when Keen Leader ranged upsides. Jonjo O`Neill`s gelding soon edged into the lead but came to grief at the penultimate flight when falling and hampering several runners.The eventual winner was lucky to avoid the stricken runner as Over The Bar (14-1) was left in the lead.The Irish raider was tackled, however, approaching the last and could find no extra as Jason Maguire asked Galileo to stretch and the pair went clear over the last hurdle to record a three-and-a-half-length victory.Over The Bar just held second as the admirable Lanzerac stayed on again to push him all the way to the line.Trainer Tom George, for whom it was a first Cheltenham success, was understandably delighted: 'That was very very exciting. We gave him a good cheer when he hit the front.'He got into every kind of trouble you could get into in that race and it still didn`t faze him or his jockey for that matter.'His jockey said he wasn`t worried at any stage - but bloody hell we were!'He is improving all the time and Jason said there is still a lot more to come. So obviously he`s an exciting prospect for us to have.'
