Elliott means business with sights set on eighth Drinmore title
Trainer Gordon Elliott
Gordon Elliott has claimed the Bar One Racing Drinmore Novice Chase trophy a record seven times and he’s set his sights on number eight.
Jessies Dream, Don Cossack, No More Heroes, Death Duty, Delta Work, Envoi Allen and Mighty Potter secured him the prize in the past.
With 16 of the 25 entrants belong to Elliot, it’s clear he wants to set himself up for the best chance of success on the day.
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, a novice over fences, showed potential by defeating Cheltenham Festival winner Slade Steel at Navan.
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.”
He continued: “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.”
