Farren Glory and Bobby McNally at Cullentra this morning© Photo Healy Racing
Gordon Elliott is determined to get the Bar One Racing Drinmore Novice Chase trophy back on his mantelpiece at Fairyhouse on December 1.
The Cullentra House handler has won the Grade One contest a record seven times, scoring with Jessies Dream, Don Cossack, No More Heroes, Death Duty, Delta Work, Envoi Allen and Mighty Potter.
However, he had to settle for second best last season when Found A Fifty was upset by Willie Mullins’ subsequent Grand National hero I Am Maximus, time showing that was a strong renewal.
In a clear statement of intent, Elliott has 16 of this year’s 25 entries and will be going all out to prevail in one of the feature events of the Bar One Fairyhouse Winter Festival.
He said: “I’ve got a lot of entries in it and I could see us running three or four.
“Farren Glory will definitely run, Shecouldbeanything will definitely run, Down Memory Lane is a possible, Firefox is there, Croke Park will run, Better Days Ahead, any of them could run. It wouldn’t shock me if I had four runners.”
Better Days Ahead could end up in the mix despite only starting out over fences at Navan on Sunday, when seeing off fellow Cheltenham Festival scorer Slade Steel.
Elliott said: “I thought he was beatable, to be honest, over that trip and having to make the running, but he’s got a lot stronger from last year and I was impressed with him, he was even better than I thought he would be.
“In an ideal world, we’ll get two more runs into him before Cheltenham. We could go Christmas and somewhere else, or Drinmore and Christmas.
“He looks as though he’s probably a bit better going left-handed, but Noel (Moran, of owners Bective Stud) is a Meath man and he’d be keen to have runners at Fairyhouse, so we’ll see how the next couple of weeks go and it wouldn’t be a shock at all if he turned up in the Drinmore.”
Although admitting he is “light” in the juvenile hurdle sphere, Elliott is upbeat about his other novice departments over both the smaller obstacles and fences.
He declared: “We’ve got a nice bunch of young horses, we’ve done a lot of rebuilding over the last couple of years and it’s exciting times.”
Romeo Coolio is among those living up to the hype after being acquired for £420,000 by KTDA Racing and finishing second in last season’s Champion Bumper.
He hacked up by 18 lengths on his debut over timber at Down Royal and now has the Bar One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle as his next target.
Elliott said: “He’s settled a lot from last year. He’s classy, he’s good and the Royal Bond is definitely the plan for him.
“I don’t think two and a half miles would be a problem, but I don’t have many quicker than him. He’s exciting and I’d say himself and maybe The Yellow Clay are the quickest I have, so I’d imagine we’ll stay at two miles.”
Kala Conti was also on target on her seasonal reappearance at Down Royal and will look to go one better than when second at last year’s Bar One Racing Fairyhouse Winter Festival behind Nurburgring in the juvenile contest.
“I’d imagine she’ll go for the WillowWarm Hurdle at Fairyhouse,” said the trainer. “She was in good form last year and then she got a little setback, but she was good in Down Royal.”
Elliott added: “I’ll be well represented in the bumper, too. All my friends and family come up that day, so it would be nice to win it.”
