by Mike Curry

Sublimity upset three highly regarded rivals to post a three-length victory in the $695,664 Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle on Tuesday at Cheltenham.

A stakes winner on the flat in England and Ireland, the seven-year-old Selkirk horse was restrained in last in the ten-horse-field behind a strong pace and accelerated into contention approaching the final jump under jockey Philip Carberry.

Sent off at 16-to-1, Sublimity powered past defending winner Brave Inca and Hardy Eustace, winner of the Champion Hurdle in 2004 and ’05, and drew clear up the hill for a decisive victory.

“This is a big moment,” trainer John Carr, 43, told Racing Post. “We thought he would win here a year ago [in the Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices Hurdle] and people were laughing at us, but we thought big and now he's delivered the goods.

“Everything went according to plan,” Carr continued. “They went too fast for their own good early on. We were the best flat horse by far in the field and he was too fast for them in the end. If the big men won all the time then it wouldn't be fair.”

Detroit City, winner of last year’s JBC Triumph Hurdle, toted an eight-race winning streak into the Champion Hurdle and was sent off as the 6-to-4 favorite after a win in the ADFA UK Hurdle on February 3 at Sandown. The Kingmambo horse failed to become the first five-year-old winner since See You Then in 1985, finishing a non-threatening sixth.

Runner-up Brave Inca finished a neck in front of Afsoun, who was a neck ahead of fourth-place finisher Hardy Eustace.

Owned by Bill Hennessy, Sublimity completed 2 1/16 miles on soft turf in 3:55.70. A virus limited Sublimity to one prep race, a 20-length win on January 27 in his return from a layoff of nine months.

Bred in France by Stratford Place Stud and Watership Down Stud, Sublimity improved to seven wins from 20 starts and boosted his earnings to $558,499. He is out of the winning Miswaki mare Fig Tree Drive.

Ebaziyan drew off to a three-length win at odds of 40-to-1under jockey Davy Condon in the Novices Hurdle. Trained by Willie Mullins for owner Mr. P. Garvey, the six-year-old Daylami (Ire) horse improved to four wins and three seconds from nine starts.

Bred in Ireland by The Aga Khan, Ebaziyan is out of 1997 Kildangan Stud Irish Oaks (Ire-G1) and Prix Royal Oak-French St. Leger (Fr-G1) winner Ebadiyla, by Sadler’s Wells.

Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times daily news editor