TROYTOWN CHASE: Take on Elliott bandwagon with this 16/1 shot

Tell me it’s the Troytown Chase without telling me it’s the Troytown Chase. Gordon Elliott is having his picture taken with his four fingers and thumb in the air the day before at Navan and has just the 11 entries for the main feature of the Navan Racing Festival to look forward to the following day.

Eleven accounts for over half of the field for the Summerhill man, who had 14 in the 3m contest this time last year, and has averaged 8.6 runners in the last eight seasons. With that said, while Elliott is the mainstay of the race, the theme this year is of the general home trainer influence – with handlers residing inside the Royal County accounting for 17 of the 20 runners – messrs Gavin Cromwell, Cian Collins (a Kerryman in fairness) and Ian Donoghue providing a formidable collective challenge. Only Henry de Bromhead and John Ryan will be crossing county lines.

Favourite

Unsurprisingly Elliott has the favourite, American Mike, who trades at 9/2 with AK Bets at the time of writing. You can see why he’s favourite, as a horse who has always been held in high regard, now in his second season as a chaser returning to the scene of both of his wins over fences last season, and able to compete off what looks a very workable mark of 145.

All of that is accounted for in his price however, and this is a hugely competitive affair. Last year’s winning rider Danny Gilligan rides Stuzzikini for Elliott this time, which looked an interesting call but when asked for one “fly in the ointment” type by Gary O’Brien, Elliott suggested the six-year-old, already having his 28th start.

He comes off a decent effort at Galway and finished fifth in the Munster National prior to that, but it’s hard to really find a form angle to him here, for all that confidence seems high. Stablemate Chemical Energy finished ahead of him in Limerick, and has long been a horse I’ve long thought capable of landing a big handicap chase. He wears first-time blinkers, will handle ground described as good to yielding better than most and will appreciate an extra test of stamina, but I was just hoping for a better price than 12/1.

Main contenders

The Henry de Bromhead duo of The Short Go and Life In The Park reside in second and third positions in the market. The former is coming off an excellent run behind his stablemate Senior Chief at Cheltenham’s October meeting and with just four chase starts on the book, he has lots of scope to progress on ground he favours.

Life In The Park comes off a good run when fourth in the Galway Plate, a race that continues to work out nicely, most recently through the exploits of stablemate Lets Go Champ, who ran well in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham yesterday. Generally speaking, he is a little bit more exposed with 12 chase starts, but he has less mileage at this trip, and the ground is also in his favour.

Selection

However, I want to stick with the home team here, and not with Elliott, but Gavin Cromwell, who came so close to winning this contest last season with Limerick Lace, and you could make a case for any one of his four-strong challenge 12 months on. The strongest case at the prices for me is Ask Anything, who like the favourite, is another second season novice with Navan form, so you’d have thought this race has been in his pipeline for at least a while.

He was very progressive last season, recording two wins and four seconds on his way from a mark of 109 to 132. His second last start of the season was an excellent effort in behind Bushmans Pass over this course and distance in a listed novice handicap chase that often produces a couple of future high-graders. The pair came 20l clear of Battle It Out – another one worth following this season by the way – who finished in between The Gradual Slope and Brucejack, who went on to finish first and third in a 3m contest at the Punchestown Festival, so it’s really good form.

Ask Anything himself went on to finish second in the Ulster National and while it wasn’t ideal that he fell on his seasonal reapperance at Galway, the hope is that he got far enough to shake off any cobwebs. His overall profile, a six-year-old with just six starts over fences screams of further improvement and at a 16/1 with AK Bets, he looks worth playing.

Of Cromwell’s other runners, Yeah Man has to have a big chance after some excellent performances in Britain last season while Tyre Kicker is an interesting runner having gone well on his comeback off a long lay-off when second at Galway. 

I was close to putting up Lisnamult Lad also, but fancier prices have been taken and I’ll leave for now. He is very interesting coming up to this trip for Ian Donoghue, having shown an excellent effort from the front when seeing off Weveallbeencaught at Cheltenham over 2m4f. I could see him going really well.

If you’re having a bet on the Troytown Chase, please consider AK Bets for big prices and big limits