Flyer Felix on front foot for Elliott
FELIX DESJY is 16/1 for the SkyBet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle after a change of tactics saw him run his rivals ragged in the Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown yesterday.
Some illustrious names have won the Grade Two hurdle headed by Kicking King, Vautour and Douvan.
Felix Desjy has a way to go to match them but a front-running five-length defeat of Jetez under jockey Sean Flanagan was a positive step and an indication that the winner could finally be building on his promise last season when sixth in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.
Yesterday’s win for Felix Desjy, who runs in the Gigginstown Stud colours, was only his second in six runs since.
Trainer Gordon Elliott said: ‘He disappointed us a few times, but we were dropping him in early on and I’d say it was the wrong way to ride him. I’d say the key to him is letting him stride along. He doesn’t have to make the running but he seems to be able to gallop them into the ground.’
Felix Desjy could run at Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival at the start of next month en route to the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in March.
Vision D’honneur made it a double for Elliott when he landed the Sportinglife.com Maiden Hurdle.
Winter Escape gave weight and a beating to the highly-regarded A Plus Tard in the Grade Three Total Event Rental Novice Chase.
Formerly trained by Alan King, for whom he showed smart form over hurdles, he lost his way briefly before his transfer to Aidan Howard.
The little-known trainer, who also does plenty of pre-training for JP McManus, has sparked him back to life as he was winning his third race over fences on the bounce.
‘I wasn’t expecting him to beat the favourite carrying that weight, but he did it very well,’ said Howard. ‘The bit of rain actually helped as he needs a bit of ease in the ground. He has a couple of entries for Leopardstown and we’ll see how he comes out of the race.
‘Mark (Walsh) gave him a great ride. He took his time, they went a good gallop so they came back to him.
‘I’m delighted as I wasn’t expecting to beat the favourite giving him a stone, that’s a lot of weight and the second horse is a good horse.’