Image © Healy Racing
Gordon Elliott’s Hollow Games could only manage fourth as he ventured across the Irish Sea to contest the Walrus Hunter Chase, one of the leading pre-Cheltenham contests in the British hunter chase calendar.
Gordon Elliott’s Hollow Games could only manage fourth as he ventured across the Irish Sea to contest the Walrus Hunter Chase, one of the leading pre-Cheltenham contests in the British hunter chase calendar.
Twice placed in Grade 1 company as a novice hurdler, the now nine-year-old is without a win since his beginners chase success at Navan in 2022, a win which remains his sole victory over racecourse fences.
Having beaten just one horse home in the Carrigarostig open last month that was won by the former Munster National winner Ontheropes last month for his seasonal re-appearance, the Bective Stud-owned son of Beat Hollow was sent off as a 17/2 shot for the Hunter Chase which lost some interest when the 2023 winner Famous Clermont was withdrawn due to the unsuitable ground conditions.
With 18-year-old Leaving Certificate student Josh Williamson in the plate, the blinders-fitted Hollow Games raced in the second half of the field throughout much of the contest, before blundering at fence ten, when ploughing his way through the fence.
He made an even more serious error four fences later which saw him drop to the rear of the field. That had him on the back foot as Gracchus De Balme led the field into the home straight until he was headed inside the final 110 yards by My Drogo who went on to win by two lengths.
Formerly a Grade 1 winner when with Dan Skelton My Drogo saw his odds for the St. James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase at next month’s Cheltenham Festival shortened, and he is now top-priced 16/1 behind Emmet Mullins’ Its On The Line.
Following the success, winning trainer Edward Walker suggest he was not guaranteed to appear at the Cheltenham.
“I’ll have to talk to Mr Kelvin-Hughes [owner] about whether we go to Aintree or Cheltenham,” he told the Press Association. “We were thinking Cheltenham, but three-two up the hill there is different to two-six here. We’ll have a chat.”
Hollow Games plugged on to take fourth place, beaten just six and a half lengths, although he was unable to better the position of the last Irish-trained runner in the Walrus, with Colin McBratney’s Welsh Saint taking third in the 2023 edition.
