Heart Wood on course to fill big shoes at Down Royal

Heart Wood has been tasked with both enhancing Henry de Bromhead’s fine record and honouring the memory of one of his greats in the BetVictor, Remembering Envoi Allen Champion Chase at Down Royal.

With this year’s race run in tribute to the trainer’s three-time winner of the Grade One showpiece, the Knockeen handler is hopeful last season’s Ryanair Chase hero proves up to filling such lofty shoes as he tests the waters back up in distance at the beginning of the new campaign.

De Bromhead said: “Heart Wood is hopefully a fitting horse to take to the race and he was brilliant in the Ryanair at Cheltenham.

“We want to step him back up to three miles and see how we get on. We’d love to see him become a three-miler this season and then we can see (about possibly the Gold Cup). Hopefully Down Royal will tell us a bit.”

He went on: “Envoi Allen had an incredible record at Down Royal and especially in that race so it’s a lovely tribute to him from both the course and the sponsors.”

Heart Wood is one of seven remaining in contention for Saturday’s feature, with Romeo Coolio attempting to begin the new campaign on a high having excelled up until the Cheltenham Festival for Gordon Elliott, who has also left Croke Park in the mix.

Haiti Couleurs is an intriguing raider for Rebecca Curtis, while last year’s Savills Chase winner Affordale Fury returns to the track having missed the Cheltenham Gold Cup with a setback after pulling up at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Joseph O’Brien’s focus may be on the Breeders’ Cup but he will have half an eye on his former King George hero Banbridge who successfully opened the pipes on the Flat at Gowran last month.

The possible field is rounded off by Andrew Slattery’s Fleur In The Park, a top-level winner at Fairyhouse in April and victorious in his reappearance in Gowran’s Grade Two Danoli Chase earlier this month.