Noble Endeavor, red and white stripes, jumping the last in Leopardstown© Photo Healy Racing
Leopardstown's Christmas Festival has been dominated by Willie Mullins but Gordon Elliott struck back in the battle for the trainer's championship as Noble Endeavor grabbed the valuable Paddy Power Chase.
With this Grade B handicap being worth the guts of 200 grand, some 28 horses went to post. Punters piled on Noble Endeavor from a morning price of 14/1, to an opening show of 11/1 and an SP of 6/1.
Davy Russell settled him well off the pace and the pair crept into contention towards the business end. They jumped the second last just off the leaders in seventh and made good headway to get on terms with Oscar Knight at the last.
The latter made a mistake there and Noble Endeavor was ridden by Russell on the run-in to forge three and a half lengths clear of well-backed favourite The Crafty Butcher (11/4).
Oscar Knight (14/1) was a length and a half away in third with the prominent racing Stellar Notion fourth at 25/1.
For those who placed bets with bookmakers paying out to sixth place, Rogue Trader (6/1) was fifth and As De Pique (33/1) came in sixth.
Gordon Elliott said: “We were hitting the crossbar all week but they are running well. They are not second last though and it’s better to be second than second last.
“That’s brilliant for Chris Jones. He’s been a big supporter of the yard and I’m delighted to be able to repay him with a nice winner like this.
“Chris invests an awful lot of money into Irish racing and is one of the main men here at Leopardstown so this is a special day for him and his family. These are the lads that deserve it so it’s great.
“We were probably a bit further back than we wanted to be early but they went some gallop.
“We’ve been second in it a few times so it’s nice to win it.
“Davy has ridden a lot of winners for us over the years but this has to be bang up there.
“I thought himself and Ucello Conti were the two picks and the ground was just a bit too quick for Ucello but he ran well.
“It’s a nice race to win. We needed it but they are running well so we are happy.
“I suppose the Irish National now would be the plan.”
Owner Chris Jones added: "I suppose we just felt some day he had to win one of those big ones. I'm just thrilled it is today. It's fabulous, it's great.
"Davy is class on those days. We kind of had a Plan A and a Plan B and I think we switched to Plan B but it worked out.
"We had a good day yesterday - Ordinary World was good and Mega Fortune was good. The horses have been great and have been running really well. It's a local track to us and we've been really lucky here so long may it last."
Davy Russell said: "To be honest I thought I would never win the likes of a Paddy Power because of my weight. All the credit has to go to Gordon, he had him spot on. We thought he would run a big race in the Troytown and he did but it was his first run in a handicap and he improved for it. I think the drier ground helped him as well.
"He's an idle horse and I wanted to bounce out of the gate going in strong but he jumped the first three fences like they were Bechers Brook. He gave them two feet and landed good and steep and I just had to forget about it then, I had to take him back and ride a waiting race on him.
"Once I got a few slaps into my lad (on the run-in), he kept going. he did it well to be fair. A big handicap like this gives the rest of us a chance to get a good payday!"
Willie Mullins said of The Crafty Butcher: "I think the ground was the crucial thing with him. He ran a great race to be second and there will be a nice day in him.”
Additional reporting by Gary Carson
