Gigginstown House Stud overwhelm Naas race with monster entry

Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh believes Gigginstown House Stud's nine possible runners from 10 entries in a Grade Three at Naas on Sunday merely advertises the powerful owners' "strength in depth".The Tom Mullins-trained Oscar Knight is the only horse in the Naas Directors Novice Chase not owned by Michael O'Leary's organisation. Kavanagh, though, only sees positives in Gigginstown's unwavering support of Irish National Hunt racing.He told Press Association Sport: "They have a very strong team, and another aspect of it is that a lot of other trainers are keeping their powder dry with Cheltenham in mind."It just goes to show their strength in depth and their continued support for Irish racing."It's a great card on Sunday - the Leinster National is worth €100,000 - and it's competitive racing."Gigginstown also have a lot of entries in the Irish National (32) but that has increased prize-money this year - it's worth €500,000 - and Gigginstown have won plenty of the major handicaps this season."They are great supporters of all our major races." A Toi Phil, Gangster, Attribution, Ball D'Arc and Road To Respect are all possible runners from the O'Leary team, butMullins is hoping the JP McManus-owned Oscar Knight can still see off the might of Gigginstown. Winner of the Foxrock Handicap at Navan in December, the eight-year-old was then third to Noble Endeavor in the valuable Paddy Power Chase at Christmas. "He's really got his act together of late," said Mullins."He had a few races last season over fences and that experience has done him good."He ran a cracking race at Christmas and is just a late developer.He's still improving, I hope."