Firefox the headline act in Elliott’s Down Royal treble

Firefox justified odds-on favouritism as his win in the Kildress Plumbing Chase highlighted a treble for Gordon Elliott at Down Royal.

The trainer sent out four winners at the track on Friday and Firefox’s four-and-half-length strike in the Grade Two contest was the pick of another fruitful afternoon.

Placed at the highest level on more than one occasion during his novice season, Firefox got his campaign off to a perfect start in the hands of Jack Kennedy, with the 8-11 favourite outbattling Gorgeous Tom.

Elliott said: “In fairness, he had been competing at the top end the whole time but (that was) a good performance.

“I thought Jack gave him a very, very good ride and just landed him there at the right time. Nice to win.

“He’s a good horse, but the problem is you are always taking on those really good horses the whole time.”

Elliott was also on the mark with Mange Tout (8-15 favourite) in the opening Lisburn And Castlereagh City Council 3-Y-O Hurdle, making all on her stable debut for a a four-length victory.

While his new French recruit was successful for Kennedy, the trainer felt he may have made a miscalculation in not running his filly in a hood.

He said: “It was a good performance. I left the hood off her because she was so laid-back at home and I thought it was the right thing to do. She wore a hood in France. I’d say I should have left it on her.

“Jack said she ran away with him the whole way. It was a good performance to win considering what she did.

“She showed a bit of class the way she jumps. I think she is nice.”

Ballyfad (10-11 favourite) completed the handler’s hat-trick in the Eventsec (Pro/Am) INH Flat Race and Elliott added: “Seven winners is great and we were very unlucky not to have eight – hit the crossbar with a good few. You can’t complain.”

Elliott’s runners in both divisions of the Tayto Group Maiden Hurdle suffered reverses, with a bad mistake at the penultimate flight costing 1-5 favourite Kalypso’chance dearly in the first split while 6-5 market leader Road Exile could finish only third in the second contest.

Stuart Crawford’s 16-1 Jony R emerged a nine-length winner in the first division, with the trainer now likely to look to Britain for another novices’ hurdle opportunity.

He said: “I’ll probably end up going across the water for a novice under a penalty rather than trying to step up in grade over here. You are going to have to go into a Listed straight away (in Ireland).

“He’s probably strong enough and mature enough to take it now.”

Noel Meade could be thinking in Grade Two terms for Blake (85-40), who was a ready four-and-three-quarter-length scorer in the second division.

He said: “I suppose the Royal Bond is a possible for him or something like that. I don’t know, we will see. I just think he is a leggy horse and I don’t think he needs to get too much racing – let him develop.

“He could be decent.”

Lieber Nicc (7-2 favourite) was a comfortable winner of the Ampion Testing Handicap Hurdle for Henry de Bromhead and Darragh O’Keeffe, while Battle Of Mirbat (11-1) took the Racing TV Handicap Chase.