Clarcam surprised his trainer Gordon Elliott in winning the Grade 2 TheTote.com Fortria Chase at Navan today, when completing a Graded treble on the day for trainer Elliott, owner Gigginstown House Stud and jockey Jack Kennedy.

The trio had earlier won both Grade 3 races with Mengli Khan and Apple’s Jade but Clarcam’s win had Elliott almost purring with contentment, as the Grand National and Gold Cup winning trainer had contemplated sending Clarcam point to pointing this term.

Prior to the race, Elliott was interviewed on Attheraces and said “I’d be surprised (if either of his two runners won, including well beaten The Game Changer and I was half-thinking of going point to pointing with Clarcam but the entries are small here so I entered him and that tells it’s own story!”

Ten minutes later, Clarcam spectacularly belied his trainer’s loss of faith in him, when getting the better of Alisier D’irlande on the run-in for a game half length win.

The son of Califet, a dual Grade 1 winning novice hurdler in 2014/15, was today gaining a ninth career win and afterwards Elliott confirmed “that's brilliant, as I was going to go point-to-pointing with him but saw it was a small entry and said we'd enter him! I was thinking of getting a hunter cert this weekend for him as I thought it would be an easier road for him!”

He added “he’s a grand horse and if he never wins another race again, he's done us proud. He's a little star - he’s won two Grade 1s and he's only seven but he's been around a long time.

“I probably should retire him now on that, because he's a brilliant horse and we're very very lucky to have him and I'm not sure where we'll go with him now.”

Quotes from Gary Carson