Elliott & Russell strike again with Colonel

Gordon Elliott and Davy Russell continued their amazing recent run of success as Lieutenant Colonel landed the UCC Horse Racing Society Hurdle at Cork.

The pair collected the top trainer and rider awards respectively at the Cheltenham Festival last week, and have shared six winners and two seconds from the nine times they have combined since Monday.

The betting suggested this four-runner affair could be narrowed down to just Karalee (4/5fav) and Lieutenant Colonel (13/8), and so it proved.

The odds-on shot led until headed by his chief market rival four out, and the race really started in earnest as Knockraha Pylon also joined in at the penultimate flight.

However the latter was unable to find any extra before the last, and it was Lieutenant Colonel who found most under pressure to score by a length and a quarter from Karalee.

Elliott's assistant Davy Condon said, "It was a great ride by Davy and it was a good opportunity for him and the horse is coming to himself as well now and had a great run behind Jezki the last day.

"The horse is a bit of a monkey but is coming back to form and Davy is riding out of his skin. Hopefully there will be another race like that for him soon."

Lieutenant Colonel was a dual Grade 1 winner for former trainer Sandra Hughes including the Hatton's Grace Hurdle back in 2014.

(TW & AM)