Electric Percy lays down an early marker for staying novice chases

Any debate around the pubs of Athenry as to which was the better horse of Pat Kelly's winners of the past two Pertemps Finals at Cheltenham can be put to bed now, and Kelly himself looks like he can very much afford to dream after last season's Festival scorer Presenting Percy laid down an impressive early marker in the staying novice chase division after winning the 2m6f beginners chase at Galway on Monday.

Not only did he have his stablemate the 2016 Pertemps winner Mall Dini to contend with, he had a trio of potentially good Gordon Elliott novices in opposition too, headed by 150-rated hurdler De Plotting Shed.

In short, this was a beginners chase that will turn out to be better than quite a few graded novice chases which will be run later in the season, and the way Presenting Percy disposed of this opposition augurs extremely well for what he might do later in the season, and indeed in years to come.