Captain Guinness© Photo Healy Racing
Henry de Bromhead is looking forward to getting a number of his star names into action at Navan this weekend with Captain Guinness biding to land the Bar One Racing Fortria Chase for the second successive year.
The Declan Lady-owned gelding won this Grade 2 event on his reappearance last season before filling the runner-up spot on all three subsequent outings including the Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March.
“Captain Guinness won the Fortria last year and we’ll start him off there again. He’s in great form and ready to get started,” said the Knockeen trainer.
“We’ll see after that and I gave him an entry in the Tingle Creek as well but we’ll get Saturday out of the way first.”
Bob Olinger is a two-time winner at the Cheltenham Festival but has failed to score in four starts since a fortunate success in the Turners Novices Chase in March 2022.
The Sholokhov gelding was second to Home By The Lee in the Railway Bar Lismullen Hurdle 12 months ago and again reappears in that Grade 2 event.
“Bob Olinger seems well and is working well. He ran well in the race last year and we are as happy as we can be with him. It would be lovely to get him back on track again,” said de Bromhead.
When asked if he would stay over hurdles or go back over fences at some stage this season, he added: “We’ll start on Saturday. There are a lot of questions to be answered but he’s doing everything right at home and we’ll see how he goes there.”
Inthepocket is another exciting prospect for the County Waterford yard having won a Grade 1 novice hurdle at Aintree last spring and the six-year-old makes his debut over fences against the likes of Facile Vega in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Beginners Chase.
“Inthepocket is in good form and touch wood has been schooling nicely. It won’t be easy but we have to start off somewhere and he’s a good horse.”
