Hold the Fort

ELLIOTT KNOWS SCALE OF TRIAL TASK

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PUT the wind up the bookmakers with a lovely each-way play on BEAUFORT SCALE (2.30) in the Grand National Trial Handicap Chase at Punchestown this afternoon.

As usual in these lung-busting events, trainer Gordon Elliott sends a huge battalion into battle — with six runners in a field of 16 — and this seven-year-old could well defy his recent form figures of 777.

The tip was quietly fancied for the Welsh Grand National, but like most of the field, he was scuppered by the going reading of good to soft which resulted in an extraordinary time of over eight seconds fast for the norm.

Back on a more forgiving surface, the seven-year-old need only improve a smidgeon on his staying on Porterstown Chase seventh at Fairyhouse off a one pound lower mark to be involved here.