Ballyfad makes all to give Elliott across the card double

He showed a good attitude. We were a bit worried in his bumpers that he looked like he was a bit sluggish in soft ground,. Jack said he showed plenty of pace there and he was absolutely delighted with him. He seemed to like that ground. We were worried that he might not be quick enough on it but it was a good performance and we’re very happy. We’ll get him home and have a chat with Michael and Eddie and see where we go, maybe the DRF.

Murat takes full advantage to open account over hurdles

I was up against two Grade 1 horses there, and the winner probably fell. It’s a learning curve for my lad and he’ll come on again for that,. He jumped a lot better today and I think I might step him up in distance after that, and let him cruise a bit further. We might go to Cheltenham and have a day out there with him. We’re close enough to the horses that are in the betting for the Supreme so why not roll the dice with him now, that’s if I still have him. I told Cian to try and get a fill into him, possibly two, and he gave him a fabulous ride. He got two fills into him. I said to try and get a fill into him before the turn in and then come up the straight with him and that’s what he did. Sean (O’Keeffe) usually rides him but he’s down in Limerick. We’ll see what happens the next day with that. I like taking on this opposition, all the big stables. Once you are competing and running well against them I look forward to it. It’s a bit nerve-wracking though. He’s nearly 18 hands high, if he’s sound in the morning we’ll dream of bigger days again. I might turn up here for the DRF. There are no real plans. Today was about seeing where we stood.

Has hardens as Triumph favourite after impressive show

Spinola Bay battles back to bring up Elliott five-timer

He was tough and Jack said he’ll stay further,. He said he was getting it easy in front and he took it. He said when they quickened he was a bit flat footed but picked up and galloped again. He showed a good attitude. It’s a cracking day and the horses are running well.

Romeo Coolio the highlight of Elliott six-timer

I was hoping the line was going to be further away than it was,. Jack said Kieren Buckley was very good on his horse, he winged it and got three lengths on him and we got stuck in a pocket. The horse was very gutsy, we know he stays very well and we’ll have learned a lot from today. I said to Jack straightaway that two miles is going to be too sharp for him but he said ‘don’t rule it out yet, he’ll have learned a lot from today as he was spending a bit of time in the air over his fences and was a bit slow away from them’. If we got soft ground on the first day of Cheltenham you’d never know. The beauty I have with these owners that we can leave everything as late as we can. We can enter him in everything and then see what we do.

Buckley bags some compensation on Addragoole

He loved that ground, the better ground on the chase track,. He’s a horse that had been running over the summer, around the likes of Bellewstown, and the better ground obviously suited him well. It’s nice to get a result and it’s nice for Kieren after just getting touched off in the Grade 1, it’s a little bit of compensation for him.

The Mourne Rambler lands Leopardstown bumper for Meade

We have him about two months. Philip owned a half share in him with Paddy Turley all along and they kept talking about how good he was,. They ran him and he was second and Philip bought the half share off him and sent him down. I didn’t do too much with him as he was pretty fit, I was trying to keep him fresh as much as anything. I’d say he’ll come on a good bit from the run. He seems to stay quite well. I would have thought that they’d be pretty keen to bring him to Cheltenham and maybe back here for the Dublin racing festival. We might even leave it like that and go to Cheltenham with him how he is. He’ll have a couple of more runs this season and then go jumping. We’ll see how he comes out of this and we certainly won’t rush him back anyway. There was a lot of chat about Willie’s and other horses. When a bumper breaks up like that you never really know if it’s a good race or not. We think he’s not a bad horse anyway so we’re happy enough.