Elliott bullish about Champion Bumper squad

Gordon Elliott is readying Jalon D’oudairies, Romeo Coolio and The Yellow Clay for the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.

The Cullentra handler has saddled two previous winners of the Grade One contest that concludes day two of the meeting, with Fayonagh striking gold in 2017 and Envoi Allen prevailing two years later.

Jalon D’oudairies, a £420,000 purchase for Gigginstown House Stud after winning his sole start in the point-to-point field, moved towards the top of ante-post lists for this year’s renewal after following up an impressive bumper debut at Fairyhouse with another clear-cut win at Leopardstown in December.

The five-year-old is set to be joined by the equally expensive Romeo Coolio, who won his only bumper start so far at Fairyhouse, and The Yellow Clay, who Elliott feels may have been underestimated following his fourth-place finish in Grade Two company at the Dublin Racing Festival.

“Jalon D’oudairies is a nice horse and has a good attitude. He showed in Leopardstown that he drops his head and wants to win,” said the trainer.

“Romeo Coolio pulled a muscle and we didn’t get to run him (before Christmas) and then I put myself under pressure to run him. He’ll have come on a stone for his first run and we haven’t missed a beat with him since he ran. He’s in good form and we’re happy with him.

“I think The Yellow Clay is going under the radar. He doesn’t do anything fancy at home and I think he was declared to run in a maiden hurdle at Down Royal in November and got a kick the day before, so we ended up missing a month with him.

“I think he’ll come on a lot from his run the last day. He mightn’t have beaten the winner (Jeroboam Machin), but he definitely would have been a good second if he’d got the run of the race.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack (Kennedy) rode him.”

While Elliott suggested it will not be a straightforward choice for his stable jockey to decide which one of the trio he would like to ride, there is no doubt the trainer holds Jalon D’oudairies in particularly high regard.

He added: “I know last October, November and December, which horse was knocking the place down working, so I’ll leave it up to Jack to decide and we’ll let the other lads ride the others.”