GORDON ELLIOTT bids for back-to-back Midlands National successes at Kilbeggan© Photo Healy Racing
Gordon Elliott is set to saddle eight of the 14 runners in the AXA Smart Farm Insurance Midlands National at Kilbeggan on Friday.
The Cullentra maestro claimed his first victory in the 100,000 euro contest 12 months ago, with Timiyan leading home stablemate Rogue Angel to give the trainer a one-two. Timiyan was later disqualified, however, after testing positive for a banned substance.
Timiyan is back for another bid 12 months on in the hands of Mark Enright, but perhaps Elliott’s chief contender is Ned Stark
The 11-year-old claimed his first victory since moving from Alan King’s yard when scoring at Perth a fortnight ago and the jockey booking of Davy Russell suggests he is the first string.
Elliott also saddles Mill Quest (Katie O’Farrell), Measureofmydreams (Keith Donoghue), Barra (Rachael Blackmore), Swingbridge (Denis O’Regan), Cecil Corbett (Luke Dempsey) and Monatomic (Kevin Brogan).
Henry de Bromhead’s Full Cry (Hugh Morgan), the Tom Mullins-trained Oscar Knight (Niall Madden), Joseph O’Brien’s Tesseract (Darragh O’Keeffe) and Noel Meade’s Rathnure Rebel (Sean Flanagan) are also in the mix.
Jessica Harrington has her stable in fantastic form and appears to have found Gambling Mistress a good opportunity to open her account.
The daughter of Big Bad Bob is clearly no star, but has been placed on a couple of occasions and the Tom McCormack Memorial Cup Mares Maiden Hurdle will not take much winning. Razoul will not be winning out of turn if he can get off the mark in the Coola Maiden Hurdle.
He has filled the runner-up spot in three of his four jumping starts to date, going down by a nose and a neck on a couple of occasions.
The Mastercraftsman gelding will not need to improve much to get his head in front in a moderate heat such as this.
It has been a long time between drinks for Michael Griffin’s Bye Bye O Bye but the Best Dressed Lady Competition At Kilbeggan Races Handicap Hurdle might just be his for the taking.
The 12-year-old has not managed to visit the winner’s enclosure since winning three times in less than a month in the spring of 2016.
However, his most recent effort when third at Limerick was his best for some time and he well treated on his best form.
The booking of Russell — who is three from four on the veteran — is another positive.
