Farouk D'alene© Photo Healy Racing
Just the four horses go to post for the Grade 2 BetVictor Ten Up Novice Chase at Navan today and Gordon Elliott holds a strong hand as he saddles both Farouk D'alene and Braeside
The field has been reduced as Run Wild Fred and Lieutenant Command have been scratched from this €36,500 contest.
Farouk D'alene trades at odds on after being pipped by a short head in the Grade One novice chase over Christmas and filling the same berth in a Grade 3 at Naas last month.
Elliott said: “Farouk D’alene has won at the track and will love the conditions and the track so he should have a good chance.
"Braeside won the Cork National on very soft ground so he’ll like it. He’s in good form.
“He missed a fence down the back in the Thyestes along with Death Duty and Smoking Gun and never got back into it."
Noel Meade runs Beacon Edge who got up to win a thrilling renewal of the Grade One Drinmore at Fairyhouse in November. This Doyen gelding then fell in the early stages of the Grade One novice chase at the Dublin Racing Festival earlier this month.
The trainer said: “It’s not ideal to be running him so close to Cheltenham but after falling we can’t do anything else other than run him.
“It’s not ideal to be running him with a 7lb penalty either but he has to get around. He’s in good form but it’s going to be very testing ground.
“If he’s going to have a chance in Cheltenham then he has to have a chance here.”
Beacon Edge holds an entry in the Grade One Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
Patrick Griffin 's Antey completes the field in this Grade 2 over three miles.
(Alan Magee & Michael Graham)
