Leopardstown Festival Day Three round-up: The three-mile trip yet again proved to be beyond Solerina who ultimately could only finish fourth to the surprise winner Rosaker in a Leopardstown thriller yesterday.

Instead of the expected odds- on victory procession in the woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle, Solerina was the centre of a tactical puzzle that resolved into a result few in the large crowd could have expected.

As usual Solerina made the running but at the sort of pace that betrayed anxieties about her stamina proving sufficient. Sure enough, a mile from home Barry Geraghty took the initiative on Emotional Moment and looked to have stolen the race.

To her credit the mare fought back and the pair were neck and neck on the run to the last. However, any satisfaction Geraghty might have felt when Solerina eventually dropped away quickly disappeared as Paul Carberry rallied Rosaker from seemingly nowhere to mug Emotional Moment close home.

"I am flabbergasted by that. I thought he wasn't within a roar of an ass of being fit!" smiled Rosaker's in-form trainer Noel Meade.

"He was very late coming back to us and I told Paul not to knock him about. He was doing that until the turn in when he suddenly thought 'I have a chance here'. I can't believe it. He is obviously best fresh."

Solerina's owner John Bowe quickly said four attempts at the distance by his star mare will be enough.

"We have found out once and for all she doesn't get it," he said. "She clearly doesn't like this place either. Gary (Hutchinson) said she wouldn't have won at two and a half. We will look now at a race at Naas in January."

Southern Vic earned general 25 to 1 quotes for the SunAlliance after a dour staying performance in the Grade one Ascon/Rohcon Chase for the father and son team of Ted and Ruby Walsh.

"Cheltenham is in the back of my mind but he does love soft ground," said Walsh Snr after his horse put 15 lengths between himself and Homer Wells. "He could hardly have done it better there and there is a three-mile race at Naas in January he could run in."

The ante-post layers had more immediate concerns after Escrea's demolition of an apparently competitive field in the Powers Handicap Hurdle.

The mare Paul Nolan trains for his neighbour, John Crean, is now an 8 to 1 second favourite for next month's Pierse Hurdle and Nolan reported: "She is good enough to get some black type and we will look at the Pierse next."

Sublimity's eagerly-awaited jumping debut didn't disappoint as Philip Carberry brought the John Carr-trained horse with a silky-smooth run to beat Inch Island in the opening maiden hurdle.

The former Michael Stoute-trained double Stakes winner earned a 16 to 1 price for the Supreme at Cheltenham but Carr won't take on the big guns before that.

"I'd rather not take on the good ones just yet. There is a little race at Ayr on January 22nd that might suit. But he has always been a natural jumper. He won a schooling hurdle at Fairyhouse last week and I knew he was the best horse in the race," he said.

Cheltenham 2006, however, doesn't look a likely stopping point for Black Harry despite Willie Mullins's horse getting a 14 to 1 quote for the Festival Bumper after landing the last.

"Whether he is good enough to go across I don't know yet. It will depend on the progress he makes over the next month. He is a real big chasing type, a bit like Florida Pearl but less forward," said Mullins.

The top weight, Tazmana, survived a stewards' inquiry into the novice handicap hurdle and held on to first from the Johnny Murtagh-ridden Tomorrow's Dream and the unlucky Mouftari.