El Champo off the mark over fences in facile fashion A 13-race maiden over fences coming into the race, the Philip Rothwell trained El Champo put that previous experience to good use when routing the opposition in the O'Neill's Bar Beginners Chase at Tramore. Up with the pace from the off, Simon Torrens led or disputed on the eventual winner, alongside the David O'Brien trained Mic Drop. The pair had the race between them with well over a circuit to race but El Champo went on to assert after jumping four out. Gradually drawing further clear of the toiling Mic Drop, the 3/1 shot had matters in hand from two out, as Torrens looked around for non existent dangers. On Lovers Walk eventually came through to take second but El Chamo scored eased down by an impressive 30 lengths. Philip Rothwell: "That's a marvellous winner, he jumped great and he deserved that as he has been placed in so many chases. I thought it might have been coming a bit quick after Galway and I thought the ground might be a bit on the good side for him. "I think David O'Brien's horse (Mic Drop) who went with him helped him massively today. He kept him company to get an easy lead. "I'm delighted to have won a chase with him, I'll give him a couple of weeks off now. He's been a great horse and has ran a lot of times, so we'll give him his gap between races now. "I wouldn't have ran him so soon after Galway only for I thought this was an opportunity we had to look at. He is a horse that wants an ease in the ground and the track have done an amazing job here to make it safe for everybody and I'm delighted to be supporting Tramore when they are putting in such a big effort." Additional reporting by Donal Murphy.
