Clan on a mission for Paul

PAUL NICHOLLS will bid for a fifth win in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase when he saddles Clan Des Obeaux in the Down Royal feature on Saturday.

Nicholls has won this traditional early-season feature with Taranis (2007), the mighty Kauto Star (2008 and 2010) and Kauto Stone (2012).

This time he relies on seven-year-old Clan Des Obeaux, winner of the King George at Kempton last Christmas before finishing fifth to Al Boum Photo in the Gold Cup and runner-up to Kemboy in the Betway Bowl at Aintree.

Clan features in a list of nine acceptors for

Saturday’s feature, seven of them owned by Gigginstown, with threetime Grade 1-winning novice Delta Work and last year’s winner Road To Respect expected to lead its challenge.

Also on Saturday, Nicholls will run Secret Investor in the Grade 2 Daily Mirror Chase.

Meanwhile, Donnacha O’brien, six clear of Colin Keane, is on the verge of retaining the Jockeys Championship.

And he should edge closer to last year’s domestic tally of 111 winners by striking on the double for his father Aidan in Dundalk tonight.

Collared late by Oneiroi in a near six-furlong maiden in Navan last time, Yale will be helped by this drop back to five furlongs and the polytrack surface in the opening maiden. It will be surprising if he fails to open his account, at the third attempt.

The O’briens might also strike with once-raced Vatican City, a half-brother to Gleneagles, in the seven-furlong Irish Stallion Farms 2-Y-0 Maiden.

This fellow stayed on late to finish fifth to Kinross on his debut in a Newmarket maiden and, on this faster surface, the Galileo colt sets a decent standard.

THE Group 1 Vertem Futurity, lost when Doncaster was cancelled last Saturday, has been rescheduled for Newcastle’s all-weather surface on Friday night.

Aidan O’brien is responsible for nine of the 17 acceptors while Jim Bolger and Emmet Mullins also hold an entry.