National Hunt racing’s popular pull got underlined with bumper crowds at the weekend’s Navan Racing Festival where Gordon Elliott once again landed the €100,000 Bar One Troytown Chase, although not with the one expected.
American Mike was a popular gamble down to 5-2 favourite but after travelling like a winner for much of the prestigious handicap he faded to sixth as one of his eight stable companions in the race, the 20-1 outsider Stuzzikini surged through to win for replacement jockey Gavin Brouder.
It was a seventh Troytown in 11 years for Elliott, who wound up the festival with a spectacular haul of eight winners – half of the weekend’s races – one more than his total last year.
If Elliott dominance is becoming routine, then Brouder’s route to big race glory on a 20-1 shot smacked of how the jumps game can be anything but standard.
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His original Troytown mount, Where It All Began, was taken out due to the going but Brouder stepped in for the ride on Stuzzikini, whose jockey Danny Gilligan had to cry off through injury.
His misfortune was good luck for Brouder who made the most of his opportunity to deny the gallant runner-up Lucid Dream, with Yeah Man in third.
“It’s brilliant to ride a good horse. You get some buzz, especially in front of a big crowd on a big day,” said Brouder. “I knew turning in. I was travelling so well. It all happened so quick.”
Brouder’s point about the crowd was well made with an official attendance of 5,003 adding to Saturday’s figure or 4,322. The 9,325 total was well up on the 2023 figure of 8,500.
Elliott didn’t look too surprised by the outcome and reminded everyone: “I tipped him up yesterday on television and said he had a chance.
“I just thought he was a horse that leaves a bit for himself, he is a bit of a monkey. I thought he could have a couple of pounds up his sleeve. Gavin gave him a great ride. Danny was unfortunate, he got a fall.”
If the Troytown ultimately proves to be Stuzzikini’s ‘Derby’ then the best is likely to be yet to come from two of Elliott’s brighter novice stars.
The Martin Pipe winner, Better Days Ahead, impressively beat another of last season’s Cheltenham Festival winners, the odds-on Slade Steel, in their beginners’ chase clash. Jack Kennedy dominated the race from the front and ultimately had four lengths in hand at the line.
Earlier, The Yellow Clay ultimately ran out an impressive scorer in the Grade Three novice hurdle, beating Where’s My Jet by 10 lengths.
Kennedy’s fears about how “babyish” the horse was running were banished as The Yellow Clay stamped his authority at the business end.
“It was a good performance, he quickened away from them. He has a great attitude and a great way of racing. He is so laid-back. You’d imagine we would go to the Lawlor’s now [Grade One at Naas in January],” Elliott said.
On the back of Saturday’s five-timer, Elliott’s weekend was almost complete, although a rare reverse came in the mares’ maiden hurdle where his €500,000 purchase Qualimita failed to justify long odds-on behind Cast A Spell.
The winner’s veteran trainer Tom Hogan famously enjoyed top-class flat success with Gordon Lord Byron and can also count the 2008 County Hurdle at Cheltenham (Silver Jaro) on his CV.
“I only have a couple of horses so it is great to get a race like this, in a place like this, at a festival like this. We will keep an eye on other festivals now,” he said.
Another of Tipperary’s smaller operations proved successful in the €45,000 Tara Handicap Hurdle went to Ray Hackett’s diminutive 28-1 shot Sequoiaspirit, a regular winner on the flat but landing his first success over flights.
“For a little horse, you’d think he’d be mad going down the inside in a big-field handicap, but he loves it. He thrives on that. He doesn’t realise he is only 15 [hands high] – he thinks he is 17.1 or 17.2! The horse is plucky, the jockey [Liam Quinlan] is plucky and when you have the two, it is a big help,” Hackett said.
The second year of Navan’s ‘festival’ version kicks off a run of high-quality weekends featuring some of the most exciting names in the sport.
Both the reigning Gold Cup champion Galopin Des Champs and his exciting young stable companion Fact To File are in the mix to run in next Sunday’s John Durkan at Punchestown.
A day earlier at Punchestown, the champion hurdler State Man is likely to try pull off a Unibet Morgiana Hurdle hat-trick while the following weekend sees a triple-Grade One card at Fairyhouse’s Winter Festival.
