Dozen Irish entries in Greatwood Clondaw Warrior, third in last season's StanJames.com Greatwood Hurdle, is among 12 Irish-trained entries for the valuable handicap at Cheltenham on November 15. Since taking minor honours behind Garde La Victoire last autumn, the Willie Mullins-trained eight-year-old has had a busy time both over jumps and on the Flat, winning at Royal Ascot and the Galway Festival. Placed in competitive handicap hurdles at Fairyhouse and Punchestown in the spring, Clondaw Warrior did disappoint in the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot last time. Mullins can also choose from Noble Inn and Cesarewitch fourth Renneti, while others among 12 Irish possibles, in a total of 59, are Tony Martin's Thomas Edison and Gordon Elliott's Hostile Fire. Heading the home team are Paul Nicholls' All Yours, John Ferguson's pair of Devilment and Maputo plus Superb Story from Dan Skelton's stable. Ferguson has 10 entries altogether with Nabucco, Francis Of Assisi and Penglai Pavilion helping to give him a powerful hand. Nicky Henderson has four interesting entries - Sign Of A Victory, Hargam, L'Ami Serge and Days Of Heaven. Connections of Cloonacool could consider the Greatwood for the Stuart Edmunds-trained six-year-old, should he put up a good show in the William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday. Nick Brown, of owners Nick Brown Racing, said: "Cloonacool runs at Ascot on Saturday and, if he were to run very well at Ascot, we would regret not having an entry in the Greatwood Hurdle. "The plan is probably to go chasing with him at some point this season but we want to keep all options open. All the jockeys who have ridden him think that he is a chaser in the making but he's very hard to rate over hurdles, so we shall see. "He's six and probably needs to jump a fence sooner rather than later but there is a lot of prize money on offer in handicap hurdles between now and Christmas in races like this weekend, the Greatwood and The Ladbroke back at Ascot. "We were delighted with his win at Market Rasen. He's a nice horse and I don't know how far he will progress. I would like to think that his current mark of 136 is workable because, even though he won by two lengths at Market Rasen, he wasn't doing a tap for the last half-furlong. "He's owned by a group of 25 owners and they are all having a great spin, which is what racing is all about." The weights will be unveiled on Wednesday.
