Navan
hosts the €100,000 Ladbrokes
Troytown Chase
on Sunday, plus the Grade Two Monksfield Novice Hurdle but both could be overshadowed if Douvan lines up in the
€16,000 Beginners Chase.
It was a similar story a year ago when Vautour made a scintillating debut over fences in the same race, at the start of a topsy-turvy novice chase campaign that ultimately now sees him as ante-post favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
There will be huge interest over Vautour's reappearance at Ascot this Saturday but it is yet another sign of the colossal impression his younger stable companion has made in just a single season racing for Willie Mullins that Douvan's chasing debut is likely to provide some weekend headlines.
Mullins has left four entries in Sunday’s Beginners Chase which saw Vautour score at 2-11 odds in 2014. It is likely to be another stepping stone for Douvan. Like his fellow Rich Ricci -owned star, Douvan took in a Grade Two success en route to Supreme Novices Hurdle glory at Cheltenham last March. He registered an easy victory at Punchestown that had some bookmakers talking of possible future Champion Hurdle glory.
Novice chase
Even more noteworthy was Mullins’s candid declaration afterwards that Douvan is “as good as we’ve ever had” and indicated a novice chase campaign was always going to be the French-bred’s course this season. Sure enough he is already a best-priced 5-2 favourite to win the Arkle at Cheltenham in March.
The concentration of novice talent Mullins has overall is indicated by how another of his charges, Shaneshill, runner up to Douvan in the Supreme, is 10-1 second-favourite for the Arkle and also features among Sunday’s entries.
Surprisingly Mullins has none of the dozen remaining in the two and a half mile Monksfield Novice Hurdle. Noel Meade and Gordon Elliott have shared the €40,000 contest between them over the last five years and both are well represented again with Meade leaving open the option of running his Down Royal winner, De Name Escapes Me.
Ground conditions on the Navan hurdles course are already officially “soft” and it is “soft to heavy” on the chase track over which the Troytown will be run.
Elliott landed the coveted handicap a year ago with Balbriggan and has four entries among the 19 left in the race after the five-day forfeit stage. They include two JP McManus- owned possibles, Riverside City and Jacksonslady.
Another mare, Ballychorus, is also in the Troytown mix while the Gigginstown Stud pair of First Lieutenant and Thunder And Roses top the weights. The Navan race could be the latter’s first start over fences since landing last Easter’s Irish Grand National.
Meanwhile Vautour remains on course for Saturday’s Stella Artois 1965 Chase and has been joined in a nine-strong entry by his Grade One winning stable-mate, Valseur Lido, who finished third to him in last season’s JLT at Cheltenham.
Paul Nicholls will rely on the recent Down Royal winner Ptit Zig to give him a fifth win in the last six years in the valuable Grade Two contest while the 2012 winner Captain Chris could also return to action in Saturday's race.
