Indo bids to get 'back on track' in Irish Gold Cup

Henry de Bromhead is hoping Minella Indo can get 'back on track' in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown on Sunday.

The Beat Hollow gelding was sent to post a solid favourite for the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas following two impressive victories in lesser company this season.

Unfortunately last year's RSA Chase runner-up crashed out at the eighth fence as stable-mate A Plus Tard went on to land the Grade One contest.

De Bromhead is hoping that Minella Indo can put that setback behind him. The eight-year-old remains prominent in the betting for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham, generally trading at around 8/1.

“He's been good since Leopardstown. It was his first run since out of novice company, his first time up against the big boys,” said the Waterford handler.

“They were going a good gallop and hopefully the fall was just lack of experience.

“He schooled really well the other day and Rachael was very happy with him.

“Hopefully we can put that behind us and we'll learn from it. We'll give him a go in the Irish Gold Cup.

“He has achieved a lot in quite a short space of time. He only ran four times as a novice hurdler, two of those were Grade Ones, and he only ran three times as a novice chaser.

“He lacks experience and the whole idea this season was to ramp it up coming to Christmas so we gave him those two runs, and he was great.

“Unfortunately it went wrong at Christmas. I'm not sure if we would have been going to the Irish Gold Cup now if he'd had a clear round but he didn't so we need to get back on track and this looks the obvious race to go and do that.”