Road To Respect makes late run for Down Royal glory

THE forfeit stage for the feature chase at the Down Royal Festival saw the Noel Meade-trained Road To Respect supplemented for the big race while the entries for the other races were revealed.

Fourteen are now entered, with Balko Des Flos — one of two trained by Henry de Bromhead, who won the 2016 running of the JNWine.com Chase with Valseur Lido — bringing Michael O’Leary’s entries to eight, with the Ryanair boss having won the past five renewals of the £140,000 chase.

Shattered Love and the locally owned The Storyteller, while entered in the Nicholson Chase, have also been entered for the supporting feature, the Grade 2 Novice Chase, which has nine engaged including a duo representing O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud and Peregrine Run, which was impressive when winning the Wexford feature on Monday.

The feature hurdle has 15 engaged. The Willie Mullins-trained Shanning, while entered for Friday’s novice hurdle, has been included in the handicap with Tudor City, Stooshie, Crossed My Mind and the locally owned Dixie Lee.

Meath trainer Gordon Elliott could dominate the festival and has a quartet in the handicap chase, and likewise four entered in the opening juvenile hurdle including Authorizo, winner of his sole start on the flat in France in January and again one of a pair owned by Gigginstown.

Meade and Elliott dominate the entries in the concluding bumper with five and four respectively engaged, while Willie Mullins’ sole representative is the locally owned Getaway North.

Meanwhile, The Worlds End — a Grade One winner over hurdles — could be an exciting addition to the staying novice chaser ranks based on his debut success over fences at Chepstow.

“Obviously there was pressure on. We just wanted him to have a nice round of jumping,” said trainer Tom George.

“It all went to plan. He’s a very high-class horse. Last season was a nightmare for him on the heavy ground all winter.

“I was really proud of him last year. He didn’t like the ground, but he was still featuring not far off the best.

“Now we’re going novice chasing and we can pick the best tracks and better ground. Good to soft, softish ground is fine, but we don’t want the heavy stuff.

“We’ve been struggling on the grass this time round, but what we did last season did the job for him and we’ve been doing plenty on the sand surfaces recently.”