Labaik goes under the hammer at Goffs

SUPREME Novices’ Hurdle hero Labaik is set to go under the hammer at the Goffs UK Aintree Sale this coming Thursday.

The previously recalcitrant grey put his best foot forward to run out a smart winner of the Cheltenham Festival curtain-raiser and will now be offered at the inaugural sale at Aintree, which takes place in the winner’s enclosure after racing on the opening day of the Grand National meeting.

Labaik ( is part-owned by bloodstock agent Aidan O’Ryan, who said: “He’s going to the sale in Aintree. The partner who I own the horse with wants to put him up for sale. We’re dissolving the partnership. He’s entered in a race at Fairyhouse this weekend, but won’t run there. We’ll have to see what happens next week.” Having refused to race twice in succession on the Flat, Gordon Elliott’s charge looked to have been reformed by a switch to the jumping game when scoring in impressive style at Punchestown and Navan in the autumn. However, his old problems resurfaced as he failed to jump off in the Royal Bond at Fairyhouse and the Navan Novice Hurdle in December and his career looked all but over after he trailed home 100 lengths behind the winner at Naas last month. But Elliott has never made any secret of the regard in which he holds the six-sixyear-old and he showed his class at Prestbury Park, beating joint-favourite Melon by two andand a quarter lengths.