Gordon Elliott is hoping there's enough cut in the ground at Down Royal for Gerri Colombe to make his seasonal reappearance in the Ladbrokes Champion Chase on Saturday week.
Elliott, speaking to Sporting Life for a stable tour, said of last year's winner: "He's in very good form, he worked well here [at Navan] after racing on Wednesday. We've spoken to them at Down Royal and if the ground isn't yielding we won't be running. We've given them ten or 12 days' notice to get the watering can out and make sure the ground is safe for all these horses. As much as we love going to these racecourses, if they don't produce the ground it will be disappointing. If it's not right we won't take a chance."
Gerri Colombe, a three-time Grade 1 winner as a novice chaser, showed a fine attitude to win last season's Champion Chase on his first start in open company (replay below) and he then found only Galopin des Champs too strong in the Savills Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup. He took advantage of Galopin des Champs' absence to win the Bowl at Aintree on his final start of the season.
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Elliott is hoping that Gerri Colombe might be capable of even better this season and said: "He's got strong, I think he's definitely a stronger horse. He needs to improve four or five lengths to beat Galopin des Champs but he had a good run back there last year and it's all systems back to Cheltenham again."
Elliott is responsible for six of the nine entries for the Champion Chase, including last season's Grand National runner-up Delta Work.
Delta Work won the Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in 2022 and 2023 and was a leading fancy for last season's race until it was cancelled due to waterlogging. He'll face a tougher task in this season's race, however, which will be run as a handicap following alterations made to the Festival programme.
Elliott said: "There are a lot of changes at Cheltenham I'm not surprised with and think might be the right thing for different reasons, but I think changing the Cross Country to a handicap is very disappointing. This race was becoming one people really loved watching, and this year it was supposed to have Minella Indo, Galvin and Delta Work, all Grade 1 winners.
"For Delta Work it will be all systems back to the English National, but which road we go I'm not sure."
On the importance of the Cross Country, Elliott added: "Silver Birch was my first Grand National winner and I don't believe it would have happened without the Cross Country race. Tiger Roll was almost finished and it lit him back up. The race was a handicap and it didn't work so why do you go back to something that didn't work?"
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