Death Duty comes alive at Punchestown to set up potential Grand National bid

Sunday: Punchestown

Since Death Duty last won a race Watford have gone through eight different managers.

It was December 2017 and he formed the final leg of an unprecedented Grade 1 treble for Gordon Elliott in the Drinmore after wins for Apple's Jade in the Hatton's Grace and Mengli Khan in the Royal Bond. Incidentally, the ill-fated Espoir D'Allen won the opener on that same card.

That was well over four years ago now and Death Duty is no longer a promising youngster with the chasing world at his feet, but the 11-year-old could be Aintree bound after a pretty emphatic victory in the Hollywoodbets Grand National Trial at Punchestown.

Paddy Power halved his price for the Grand National to 25-1 and Gordon Elliott said afterwards that Aintree might well be on his agenda.

"We have Cheltenham and Aintree and he'll go to one or the other. He'll be in the Kim Muir and the Ultima at Cheltenham and in the English National too," the winning trainer said.

Elliott must have got a massive kick out of getting Death Duty back to winning ways, given how long the drought lasted amid an endless list of injuries, but he deflected all the praise to Seainin Mahon instead.

Elliott explained: "Seainin Mahon, the girl who led him up, rides him every day and looks after him like a baby. He's like glass and she does all the work with him, so big credit has to go to her."

Grand National Trial result & replay

On the performance, he added: "He did it well and Jack [Kennedy] said he got into a lovely rhythm. He ran very well at Christmas [in the Paddy Power] but made a mistake at the first or second down the back at Gowran [in the Thyestes] and just never got into the race then. Jack gave him a beautiful ride and I'm glad it worked out. It's been a long time between drinks.

"He won two Grade 1s and has always been a very good horse, so it's great to see him putting his head down there and galloping all the way to the line."

Death Duty provided Elliott with his third win in the past five runnings – Folsom Blue (2018) and Dounikos (2019) being the others – and he was also responsible for Floueur in third and Coko Beach in fourth.

The Enda Bolger-trained Champagne Platinum was the only one to get among the Elliott team, as his rejuvenation continued with a solid effort in second, beaten three lengths.

This was Death Duty's day, though. The day he came alive again.

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