Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
INDO’S RETURN
Gold Cup hero’s back for Champion Chase tilt at Down Royal
GOLD Cup victor Minella Indo will face a maximum of six rivals when he makes his seasonal debut in the €125,000 Ladbrokes Champion Chase in Down Royal on Saturday.
And Jack Kennedy, who partnered him to Gold Cup glory, will maintain his partnership with the Henry de Bromhead-trained eight-yearold, last seen when outpointing stable-companion A Plus Tard (expected to reappear in the Bettfair Chase in Haydock next month) up the the Cheltenham hill last March.
Rated 175, he’ll bid to give de Bromhead a second win in the Down Royal showpiece, which boasts a winner’s prize of €73,750.
Gordon Elliott is responsible for three of the seven acceptors, headed by five-time Grade 1 winner Dellta Work, off the track since finishing third to Kemboy in the Irish Gold Cup last February, and Galvin, who extended his winning sequence on his seasonal bow in Punchestown recently.
Paul Nicholls has enjoyed plenty of success in the race and is aiming Frodon at this year’s contest while Noel Meade’s
Road To Riches, a dual-winner of the race (2018 and 2019) is also on course to start his campaign.
Significantly, Envoi Allen, whose untarnished record ended with a fall in Cheltenham before being pulled-up at the Punchestown Festival, is entered for the Grade 2 Join Racing TV Chase, chief supporting race on Saturday’s card.
Meanwhile, today’s action is on the polytrack in Dundalk and Andy Oliver and Ronan Whelan, who savoured Group 3 success with The Highway Rat at this venue on Friday, might be on the mark again with once-raced filly Enjoymyslipstream in the six-furlong Irish Stallion Farms EBF 2-Y-0 Auction Maiden.
A daughter of Air Force Blue, she shaped with lots of promise on her recent debut in Naas, surrounded by experienced fillies in the closing stages as she finished fourth, beaten less than three lengths, behind Siesta Beach.
Oliver’s charge will know a lot more about her job today and, switched to the polytrack, is preferred to Michael O’callaghan’s El Magnifique, runner-up to Pearle D’or in Naas and the consistent but frustrating, Andy Slatterytrained Special Power.
Most interesting runner on the card is Aidan O’brien’s newcomer Newfoundland in the other two-year-old maiden, the Irish Stallion Farms Maiden over seven furlongs.
This colt is a full-brother to none other than star filly Snowfall and is a fascinating debutant. The market should give us an insight into expectations for this Deep Impact colt.