Leading trainer sends 11 into battle for Troytown hat-trick bid

With every passing week, 38-year-old Gordon Elliott seems to break new ground and on Sunday he will do so again when he runs a personal-best 11 horses in the €100,000 Ladbrokes Troytown Chase.

For the Meath native, who was reared and now trains near Navan racecourse, the Troytown is a race close to his heart, which you could guess from the battalion that he has assembled in an attempt to win the race for the third year on the spin.

"It's a great prize and it's a race that's very special for me as it's my local track, so let’s hope we can win it," said Elliott, who has declared 27 in total on the Navan card.

"The horses are all fit and well and hopefully one of them will be good enough."

Noble Endeavor is rated Elliott's best chance by bookmakers and on Friday night was general 7-1 favourite.

Elliott's former mentor Martin Pipe saddled ten in the 2001 Grand National and the same number in a Taunton handicap hurdle in 2003, but David Nicholls sets the pace having run 12 in the Stewards' Cup consolation in 2003 – for good measure he saddled 11 in the same race the following year.