Drew anticipating further progress from Final Demand

Owner Bryan Drew is respectful of the opposition despite warning there will be more to come from Final Demand ahead of what could be a mouthwatering Ladbrokes Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Willie Mullins’ exciting chasing prospect has already tasted Grade One success at Leopardstown’s showpiece meeting, lighting up the Foxrock venue with a dazzling display over hurdles 12 months ago.

The seven-year-old will now return to the Irish capital searching for a repeat and having already secured top honours over the larger obstacles when scoring at Limerick at Christmas, connections are relishing locking horns with the cream of the Irish novice chasing scene.

“You can’t go there confident, but I think our fella is yet to run his best race this season and I don’t think he’s been fully fit in either of his outings,” said Drew, who owns Final Demand alongside good friend and long-time racing associate Professor Caroline Tisdall.

“Looking at the entries, you’ve got to have huge respect for some of the possible opposition like Romeo Coolio and Kitzbuhel.

“Jimmy Du Seuil didn’t like the ground much at Limerick and he is much better than he showed us then and there will be others in there as well to watch for.

“It was a funny race on sticky sort of ground at Limerick and he just did what was required. We’ll probably go there as favourite and probably rightly so, it looks a tremendous race and I can’t wait to be there.”

Such is Final Demand’s potential, Drew admits to having felt the weight of expectation ahead of his festive outing, where he added his name to the Faugheen Novice Chase roll of honour with a facile eight-length success which still had some wishing for more.

“We went to Limerick with a little trepidation, albeit being 1-3 favourite. I always felt that was too short and we were worried about Jimmy Du Seuil, who never ran his race as it turned out,” added Drew.

“If you wanted to be picky, you could say the other two in the race got a bit too close to him, but then he’s had an off-day and still won with his head in his chest really, which is the sign of a classy horse.

“In the end it was a nice day out and the horse won well despite probably not running his best race.”

It was a victory which strengthened Final Demand’s position at the head of the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase market as the general even-money favourite.

Next on the list for that Cheltenham Festival event is possible Leopardstown rival Romeo Coolio, who has also secured top-level this success over fences this term and could meet Final Demand at what is his optimum trip on February 1.

“It will be interesting if Romeo Coolio does line-up as it seems they can’t make their mind up about trip and opportunities and with a horse like him, it does feel a shame there is no longer the Grade One two-and-a-half-mile chase for novices at the Festival, but then you can’t please everyone.

“They seem to be in a similar situation we found ourselves in last season when we had to decide whether to run in the Turners or Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham, but it will be interesting to see them go head-to-head at Leopardstown.”