Andy Stewart confirms Celestial Halo will run in Irish Champion Hurdle

Celestial Halo is to run in the Irish ­Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday but both Sublimity and Punjabi, who were among the 12 entries unveiled today, are likely to miss out. Andy Stewart, owner of Celestial Halo who was runner-up in last season's ­Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, said: "My view is he needs a run before the ­Champion Hurdle. He's probably not good enough to win it so what's the point of waiting until the [Kingwell Hurdle at] Wincanton when that might be frozen off or something. "Ruby [Walsh] thinks he will take to the track quite nicely, so we'll give it a go." Celestial Halo faces a tough task with the Charles Byrnes-trained Solwhit likely to put up most resistance as he chases his third Grade One prize of the campaign. Nicky Henderson has left in the reigning champion hurdler Punjabi, though a trip to Haydock on Saturday is his preferred destination. That could be the revised ­target for Sublimity too, whose trainer Robbie Hennessy was dismayed to learn of the forecast rain ahead of the weekend. Hennessy told racingpost.com: "We're hoping for a dry week and the intention is to run if the conditions are right. We'll leave it until the last minute. If we got too much rain, we wouldn't run." Meanwhile the exciting novice hurdler Dunguib is to be given an entry in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March but is far from certain to run, according to his trainer, Philip Fenton. Dunguib is due to run at ­Leopardstown on February 7 and Fenton said: "We will see how Leopardstown goes but the Supreme [Novice Hurdle] is the objective. But as a precaution he's in the Champion and we will decide closer to the day and see what happens in the meantime."