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Six horses have stood their ground for the €150,000 Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal on Saturday and it’s Gordon Elliott that holds the strongest of hands as he seeks to win the first Grade 1 of the season for the fifth time.
The trainer’s initial success in the race came with Roi Du Mee 10 years ago and he’s since scored with subsequent Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Don Cossack in 2015, Outlander in 2017 and most recently with The Storyteller in 2020.
Gerri Colombe, a triple Grade 1-winning novice chaser last season, heads Elliott’s team of four which is made up of former Irish Gold Cup and Savill’s Chase winners Conflated and Delta Work, and this year’s Tote Galway Plate hero Ash Tree Meadow.
Henry de Bromhead supplies the opposition to the Elliott quartet as he has left in both the former Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Minella Indo, successful on his return to action at Punchestown earlier this month, and Envoi Allen, winner of this race a year ago before taking the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham in March.
Nine entries have been received for the Grade 2 racingtv.com/freetrial Chase with Emmet Mullins’ Punchestown festival Grade 1 winner Feronily and the Willie Mullins-trained Authorized Art leading the way. Elliott has two in the race and along with Ash Tree Meadow, he has entered Fil D’or while John McConnell has Mahler Mission and Peter Fahey looks set to run his hat-trick seeker Visionarian.
The Philip Dempsey-trained Broomfield Bijou, Gordon Elliott’s Shecouldbeanything and The Model Kingdom, trained by Noel Meade, feature among 20 entries for the Listed Haslem Hotel Handicap Hurdle while Gordon Elliott’s dual winner Wodhooh heads the 11 horses entered for the Lisburn And Castlereagh City Council 3-Y-O Hurdle.
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