Down Royal Champion Chase preview

So we’ve already reached the first Grade 1 race of the new jumps season and all roads lead to Down Royal, which one colleague joked a year ago should have 'twinned with Elliottsville' on the welcome signs.

The Ladbrokes Champion Chase, then sponsored by the former chairman of the racecourse Jim Nicholson, was elevated to top-level status in 2002 and has an all-star roll of honour - headed by Kauto Star (twice), Beef Or Salmon (also a dual winner) and Don Cossack.

In recent years the meeting has become established as a top two-day fixture dominated by the Gordon Elliott team to the extent that in 2023, when the meeting had to be delayed by a week, he had a remarkable 11 winners, ridden by five different jockeys.

The Friday six-timer included rising stars Irish Point and Betterdaysahead, and then he scooped the big prize on the Saturday when Gerri Colombe, later to finish second in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, got home from the 2022 winner Envoi Allen in a thrilling finish.

Elliott’s Saturday haul was the first five winners with hopes of 'doing a Dettori' ended by a third place in the sixth race. And if the ground is suitable, a caveat Elliott has been stressing, the Cullentra Heavy Brigade are set to head north from County Meath once more this weekend.

It was a meeting where for some years a Paul Nicholls-trained runner was all the rage, and his tally of five wins saw Frodon the most recent of his successes three years ago, when Bryony Frost at her best nearly lifted the roof off the place.

The field is always small, but exceedingly select.

Down Royal has been one of the success stories of Irish racecourses in recent years, trainers praise the track and racegoers the facilities on offer, but this is a weekend that showcases what really matters - the course and the racing.

Before it was a Grade 1, the Champion Chase was first run in 1999. The winner that year? A certain Florida Pearl, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Carberry.

It’s hard to imagine a better opening page in the history of any new race.

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