Elvis leaves rivals all shook up as he returns to the Grand National trail

Another flop could have brought the end of Velvet Elvis's season, but victory under Darragh O’Keeffe to land the 2m7f rated chase instead means he could be heading to the Grand National.

Last season's Irish Grand National sixth had been well below par this season, having been pulled up on his last two starts in the Troytown at Navan and the Tim Duggan Memorial at Limerick, but this was much more like it.

He was on his game from the off,  jumping in the style which brought him victory in Grade B company at Navan last spring. He stayed on strongly to account for odds-on favourite Minella Crooner by three and a half lengths.

Trainer Tom Gibney could hardly hide his relief and said: "His owner Derek Kierans is the big spending owner we have and the two horses he has with us both flopped simultaneously.

"We had high hopes for this fellow and Hartur D'Arc at the start of the season. We did all the tests going, got no answers and we were just left scratching our heads. It was a 100 per cent recovery mission here and we are definitely on the way back.

"Aintree was the main aim from the start of the season, but today could have been the end of the season if it had gone the way of his last couple of runs. We were just hoping to see him somewhere back to himself.

"We'll go from here and see what happens. Hopefully, he can build from that and he'll need to. Aintree is still the main plan, whether he goes straight there we'll see."

Bookmakers trimmed Velvet Elvis to 66-1 for National glory.

Townend treble

Champion jockey Paul Townend was 20 winners adrift of Jack Kennedy in the title race a month ago, but the astonishing rate at which Townend has been riding winners since Kennedy's leg break at Naas on January 8 saw him move ahead in the title race.

Level on 77 as dawn broke yesterday, Townend had moved to 80 by the end of the card as he and Willie Mullins combined for yet another treble with three odds-on shots.

Instit got the better of stablemate Pont Aval in the opening mares' beginners' chase at odds of 2-7, while 4-5 favourite Viva Devito galloped his rivals into the ground for owner Chris Jones in the 2m maiden hurdle.

The only one of the three likely to be heading for Cheltenham is classy Flat mare Lot Of Joy, who easily landed odds of 1-7 in the mares' maiden hurdle. Her jumping was a little sticky early on, but when she got into a rhythm she was much better and won by an effortless 12 lengths.

She remains a general best-priced 12-1 with many firms for the mares' novices' hurdle at Cheltenham. Mullins said: "Bringing her back to two miles was probably the right thing to do. She is settling and jumping better and we are very pleased with her progress. I imagine she will go to the mares' novice next."

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