'Ndaawi is our number one' - is 2025 the year when Gordon Elliott finally wins the Galway Hurdle?

It has become an irritating itch, a lingering scar he would love to scratch. Gordon Elliott has basically won every big handicap in Ireland, most of them multiple times, but the Galway Hurdle remains out of reach. The €270,000 Ballybrit bonanza continues to elude the Cullentra camp but maybe 2025 is the year to set the record straight.

"I'd love to win it," admitted Elliott when asked about the anomaly. "We've been battering the crossbar for a few years and it would be nice to hit the back of the net."

The crossbar has indeed been battered. Ndaawi chased home Nurburgring last year, Bayan was second to Thomas Edison in 2014, Flaxen Flare finished runner-up to Missunited in 2013 and who can forget Cause Of Causes, who gave Davy Russell an almighty fright on Rebel Fitz in 2012. All Davy Condon needed was one more stride and he would have got there.