Top class entry for this weeks Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park

THE first three horses home in the race last year might well renew rivalry in the latest renewal of the historic Goffs Thyestes Chase which will be shown live on RTÉ television from Gowran Park on Thursday, January 27.

Coko Beach, Run Wild Fred and Class Conti are among 38 entries for the race with which has the Henry de Bromhead-trained Chris’s Dream as its early top-weight. Successful with Champagne West in 2017, de Bromhead has also entered Eklat De Rire and Full Time Score.

Bidding for a third Goffs Thyestes Chase success, Gordon Elliott has last year’s winner and runner-up on his early team of 10, the most of any trainer. Smoking Gun and Escaria Ten could also represent the Cullentra trainer who won the race in 2018 with Monbeg Notorious, which, like Coko Beach, the hero of 12 months ago, was ridden by Jack Kennedy. 

No one has a better record in the race than Willie Mullins and he has a team of six going forward. The champion trainer has won the race on eight previous occasions and in addition to Class Conti, third last year and runner-up to his own stable companion Total Recall in 2020, Mullins could call upon Brahma Bull, Franco De Port, Munster National winner Ontheropes, Agusta Gold and Stones And Roses.

Joseph O'Brien has put four in the race, Scarlett And Dove, a Grade 2 and a Grade 3 winner, Top Moon, the five-year-old Busselton and his fellow novice Global Equity. Another trainer searching for a first Thyestes Chase win is Noel Meade whose entry is made up of three novices, Farceur Du Large, Diol Ker and Lieutenant Command, and Brace Yourself.  

Third in last year’s Aintree Grand National, Any Second Now has been given an entry by Ted Walsh who landed his first success as a trainer with the Brendan Sheridan-ridden Roc De Prince in the Thyestes Chase in 1991. The 2005 race winner Numbersixvalverde won the Irish Grand National that same year and the Aintree Grand National in 2006 and his trainer Martin Brassil could be represented by Longhouse Poet this time.

Court Maid and Ex Patriot are other notable entries for local trainers Tom Mullins and Ellmarie Holden respectively.