Milan Native and Jack Kennedy © Photo Healy Racing
Just three lined up for The Ryans Cleaning, Disinfecting, Waste Recycling And Disposal Chase but, nonetheless, it produced an exciting finish as the 11/10 favourite Milan Native made all and just held the late thrust of Discorama by a short head.
These two had last been seen at the Cheltenham Festival, with Milan Native winning the Kim Muir under Rob James and Discorama running a fine third in the Ultima.
The former looked to be holding Discorama after the two fences in the dip and most of the way up the straight, but Paul Nolan’s horse stayed on well close home and it was a close-run thing in the end.
The pair came close late on as well, but after a fairly lengthy stewards’ enquiry the placings remained unaltered.
Winning trainer Gordon Elliott said before the outcome of the enquiry: “Jack (Kennedy) said he gave him (Discorama) a bump so we’ll just have to see.
He’s very hard to place but we’ll have to look at something like that two and a half or two six race at Navan (intermediate chase next month).”
Elliott, recording his third winner of the afternoon, had watched the race with Nolan in the lower part of the stand and shouted to his friend and rival “you’re just up from behind” before the result was called. He was, by turns, pleasantly surprised by the result and relieved that there was no change following the stewards’ deliberations.
Additional reporting by Eamonn Murphy
