Lawlor's Of Naas Novice Hurdle (Grade 1)

GORDON Elliott has successfully used the Lawlor's Of Naas Novice Hurdle as a launchpad to Turners Novices’ Hurdle glory at Cheltenham with Envoi Allen and will bid to do the same this spring with The Yellow Clay - an emphatic eight-length winner in Ireland’s first Grade 1 of 2025.

A horse of some significance for owners Bective Stud, being their first homebred winner and now a first homebred Grade 1 winner, the mount of Sam Ewing coped well with the testing ground at a rainy and sleety Naas, which had to pass a raceday morning inspection in order to hold racing.

Last season’s Champion Bumper winner Jasmin De Vaux was sent off the 11/8 favourite after the form of his Navan maiden hurdle win had worked out spectacularly over the festive period, but his jumping let him down and he probably ended up getting further back than would have been ideal.

Wingmen, representing the same connections as the winner, was always to the fore and ran with credit in finishing third, though the writing was on the wall once his stablemate - still unbeaten over hurdles - loomed upsides at the top of the straight. Elliott’s 11/4 shot could have been called the likeliest winner from a fair way out under Sam Ewing.

Supersundae showed his own share of potential by staying on into second, but he was still ultimately beaten eight lengths by The Yellow Clay, who was cut to 7/1 (from 20/1) for Turners. Jasmin De Vaux finished a total of 22 lengths away in fourth and was eased out to 20/1 (from 8/1) for the same Cheltenham contest.

“This horse just knows how to win and has a good attitude,” said Elliott, now a five-time winner of this Grade 1 after previous victories with Death Duty (2017), Battleoverdoyen (2019), Envoi Allen (2020) and Ginto (2022).

“I was very worried about the ground being so testing; I was even humming and hawing as to whether I’d run him this morning.

“They went a good gallop all the way and I loved the way he travelled. If anything he probably got there too soon. In a way, I’d imagine the fact he had a race and got a few reminders at Navan last time could have woken up. He put his head down and went dead straight all the way home.

“I’d imagine we’ll go straight to the Turners now. We’re in a great position with a lot of nice young horses coming along.

“A homebred Grade 1 winner for Bective is great too. Noel [Moran] isn’t here today, he’s in Turkey but will have been watching on and I’m sure he’s delighted. We didn’t have a great Christmas and were hitting the crossbar with everything but he’s in the game for the long haul and that’s what it’s all about.”

On the third-placed Wingmen, Elliott added: “We said we’d let him stride away and he ran a good race as well. He didn’t hang today and jumped better. On his day, there’s a big one in him. I’d say he could be stepped up to three miles if we wanted. We’ve got a few nice young horses so we can’t complain.”

This success for The Yellow Clay also marked a fifth Grade 1 win for Sam Ewing in a little more than a month, deputising for the sidelined Jack Kennedy.