El Cairos gets back on track at Gowran Park The Gordon Elliott-trained El Cairos (11/8) got his first win over hurdles since the 29th of January with a good performance in the Gowran Park hurdle, where he was an eight-and-a-half-length winner, with the Willie Mullins-trained Gaucher in second place. The son of No Risk At All has had his jumping issues in the past but jumped well on the whole and travelled well. It looked like Jack Kennedy had everything covered, travelling to the last before the Andy Slattery-trained Ebony King, who was very impressive on his last start in Listowel, came travelling with jockey Cian Quirke but unfortunately tumbled at the last and departed Quirke, which left the race at the mercy of El Cairos. Speaking after the race, trainer Gordon Elliot said "we had luck on our side and Jack said he wasn't sure what would have happened. However, the thing he said was that El Cairos was galloping at the last, and said we could actually go further (in distance) with him so we might now experiment with stepping him up in trip as well. "Things went wrong with him falling at Leopardstown last year and his whole season was a mess afterwards. It is hard to place him now although would be an ideal horse for Grade 2s and 3s and there is good prizemoney in those races. "We'll pick and choose where we go and Jack said the speed he could have over 2m4f would be a big help, as he is now settling. "It is great for the syndicate who are great supporters of Cullentra." (Quotes from Tom Weekes)
