CLAN DES OBEAUX is the sole British runner headed to Down Royal for the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase this weekend.
Paul Nicholls’ star will bid to win his second race at the top level after capturing last year’s King George.
Nicholls, who’s won the race four times in the past, believes his progressive gelding can become the latest to triumph in Northern Ireland.
He said: “He is a very good horse and my belief is that he is an awful lot better horse going right than left – and evidence suggests that is the case.
“He looks superb and seems in excellent form.
“With horses like him you just hope it a matter of maintaining it.”
However, with Gigginstown House Stud responsible for seven of the nine entries, it certainly won’t be easy.
Last year’s star novice,Delta Work,is perhaps the most dangerous of the septet, with his easy Grade 1 win at Puncehstown last April surely a telling sign of what’s to come this season.
Trainer Gordon Elliott has also entered recent Irish Daily Star Chase runner-upAlpha Des Obeaux,former smart Flat horse Mengli Khanand the powerful mareShattered Love,while Henry De Bromhead and Noel Meade split the other runners –Balko Des Flos, Road To Respect, Tout Est PermisandSnow Falcon– between them.
