Never has a market been so beneficial than when looking over the list of Novice Chasers for Gordon Elliott this season. He gave the 4 miler a name check for Blow by Blow in his stable tour today but I really don't think they have much of an idea on how
Blow by Blow - won MP at the festival
Cracking Smart - form ties in closely with Next Destination
Champagne Classic - won MP at the festival & grade 1 hurdle at Punchestown Festival
Dortmund Park - won grade 1 hurdle at Punchestown Festival
Delta Work - won the pertemps at the festival & 2nd in grade 1 hurdle at Punchestown Festival
Will end up trip wise come the festival. The fact all of them can be backed at 16/1 upwards is for me very generous when you consider their achievements last season. Now the above don't compare to them but really the last time we had a similar situation is with Willie Mullins & Rich Ricci and the likes of Vautour, Douvan, Annie Power, VVM, Faugheen etc but you were talking any race odds (if available) far far shorter.
Not a novice to add to the above list but i'm also very keen to get
The Storyteller added in this race.
He’s a horse I think an awful lot of. He was obviously lucky to win the Grade 1 novice chase at the Punchestown Festival, but he had a great season up to that and had won at the Cheltenham Festival too. Don’t be surprised if he ends up back over hurdles, as he looks well-handicapped and could have a big one in him.
I was hoping to find some 20's any race but the biggest offered is 16/1 (have requested a price with other firms). 100% a horse i'd want in this market, as he really could go anywhere and that's before GE opened up the option of hurdles! An OR of 155 means he'd need to drop a few pounds to be considered for any of the handicap chases really if he wasn't able to improve on that mark and go on to compete in the Ryanair / Gold Cup etc. The fact he has a hurdles rating of 142 though - 13lbs lower than his chasing mark could be huge! He may well just be a better horse over fences but I remember Elliott saying he was his best handicapped horse for the festival in 2017 and he was as low as 9/2 fav for the Martin Pipe that year before injury so he could be chucked in off that mark (what many people considered at the time) and he could very well line up for that race 2 years on
Again a horse made for this market this season.