Road To Respect leads excellent weekend for point graduates
For the third successive year, the first Grade 1 of the new season was won by a point-to-point graduate when Road To Respect became the first horse to defend his crown in the Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal on Saturday.
Taking his earnings over the €400,000 mark, the eight-year-old is now an eight-time winner since his maiden success at Monksgrange in 2015, with the 2016 winner of the same four-year-old race at the Bree Foxhounds’ fixture, Samcro, also winning at Down Royal on Friday.
Gordon Elliott’s charge got his career back on track as he ran out an easy 17-length victory on his debut over fences, to return to the winner’s enclosure for the first time since the 2018 Cheltenham Festival.
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