Elliott wins Down Royal's opening four races

Irish Point continued trainer Gordon Elliott's domination of today's Down Royal card as the Aintree festival Grade 1 winner defied top weight to land the Grade 3 Bottlegreen Hurdle.

The five-year-old was triple champion jockey Davy Russell's final career winner at Aintree last April and today, burdened with a Grade 1 penalty, conceded 13lb to last year's winner Magical Zoe

Low sun resulted in just six of the nine intended hurdles being jumped, with Irish Point making all and shaking off Magical Zoe's challenge from the last to score by a length and three parts.

The win was Elliott's fourth in a clean-sweep of the card thus far while successful jockey Jack Kennedy was completing a treble, having missed Elliott's opening winner Zefiro Dodville

Elliott commented “we know he wants further, but he picked up and galloped. We are very happy with him. He (Kennedy) was in the right spot and he kicked at the right time and made plenty of use of him.

"We didn't want to make it but we had to because there was nothing else to do so. I'd say we will definitely step him up in trip as he really stays. We will keep all options open, but it wouldn't shock me if you saw him going three miles at some stage."

Elliott, chasing further wins in the upcoming final three races, quipped “hopefully we will get another winner and we'll be happy!"

Quotes from Michael Graham