Nicholls eyes up success at Down Royal

All eyes this weekend will be on Down Royal, where Saturday’s €140,000 Grade 1 JN.wine.com Champion Chase has attracted a class field.
This three-mile test has been won by some pretty useful sorts over the years, including 12 months ago by dual Gold Cup winner,Kauto Star. His trainer Paul Nicholls looks likely to be represented by The Nightingale on this occasion.
The winner of a novice chase at this fixture 12 months ago, The Nightingale has only appeared once in the interim when pulled-up behind Long Run at Kempton back in January.
Obviously, something went amiss with Graham Roach’s chaser on that occasion but the vibes coming from Nicholls’ Ditchheat base of late suggest the French-bred is back to his best.
His regular partner, Ruby Walsh, faces an anxious wait, however, to see if he can ride the eight-year-old, with the Kildare rider’s appeal against a controversial five-day whip ban, which rules him out of this weekend’s action, due to be heard this week.
One home contender sure to be fancied is Jessica Harrington’s Bostons Angel, who rounded off last season with a gutsy victory in the RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
Robbie Power’s mount is developing into a smart sort and the predicted soft ground will hold no fears for him, while he is sure to be ready to do himself ­justice coming from the Harrington yard.
There are quite a few other serious contenders for this valuable early season prize and none more so than Robbie Hennessy’s Rubi Light. He looked to have his last start at Gowran safely in the bag when heading to the final fence with what appeared an unassailable lead, only to tip-up there, leaving Sizing Europe to win in fortunate circumstances.
Rubi Light was remounted by Davy Russell to claim third on that occasion and that run will leave him cherry ripe for Saturday’s test.
The aforementioned Sizing Europe is also among the 10 entries and the Ann and Alan Potts-owned chaser has the class to make a serious impact.
He was second in this race last year before dropping back in trip to register a convincing success in the two-mile Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham. 
He beat Big Zeb comfortably on that occasion and, while it is early in the season to be fully wound-up, Henry De Bromhead will see this as a nice prize to pick up, if possible.
Big Zeb’s trainer, Colm Murphy, has Quito De La Roque engaged and this Gigginstown House Stud representative has won five of his six starts over fences, which is very good form. Roi Du Mee is also in the field but Gordon Elliott’s runner, who is also Gigginstown House owned, may well opt for the less competitive Ladbrokes.com Chase on the same card.
Neil Mulholland has left his ­Cheltenham Gold Cup fifth, Midnight Chase, in Saturday’s feature with Hey Big Spender another British hopeful. Rare Bob (Dessie Hughes) and Michael Bowe’s Coolcashin complete the line-up, having also stood their ground at the final forfeit stage on Tuesday morning.
Racing kicks off at the northern venue on Friday afternoon with The Real Article and Oscar’s Well set to go head-to-head in the featured Grade 2 €50,000 WKD Hurdle.

Another six-timer for unstoppable O’Connor
Derek O’Connor’s domination of point-to-point racing shows no sign of abating with the Tubber rider running riot at last Saturday’s Loughanmore meeting, where he rode six winners.
The 29-year-old had become the first jockey ever to ride six winners twice when bagging half a dozen wins at Loughrea just 13 days earlier and he quickly repeated that feat for a third time when totally dominating the East Antrim fixture.
O’Connor trips up north have always proved successful and last Saturday’s run was started when he steered ­Balnaslow, owned by his main patron, Wilson Dennison and trained by Colin McKeever, to land the second division of the opening four-year-old maiden race.
Sent off an easy to back 6-1 shot, Balnaslow jumped and travelled like a winner all the way and he only had to be kept up to his work to beat Colin Magnier’s Ted Veale by two lengths.
O’Connor’s second success of the afternoon also came in the Dennison colours as Ballycassel (4-1), who assumed command at the final fence, stayed on best on the run-in to beat Milano Magic by four lengths, thus completing a training double for McKeever.
The recent injury to Jamie Codd left top trainer, Gordon Elliott in search of a top rider for his powerful pointing string and the County Meath handler turned to the reigning champion in his hour of need when giving him the leg up aboard hot-favourite Backstage in the open lightweight.
O’Connor is no stranger to riding for Elliott, having successfully steered Chicago Grey to an historic victory in National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham last March and he duly delivered when bringing the Aintree National bound 4-6 favourite home a snug three-length winner over runner-up Mattock Ranger.
Elliott was again the provider for O’Connor’s fourth success of the afternoon when Derg Princess (5-4F) came good in the first division of the five and six-year-old mares’ maiden.
This smart-looking mare, who carries the colours of her East Clare breeder, Sean Grogan, had good form inside the rails when trained by Ronnie O’Leary and she duly delivered as her nearest rival, Con Air, who looked held at the time, departed at the final fence, leaving the five-year-old clear to beat Pegsdream by 15 lengths.
With four wins already on the board, things were to get even better for O’Connor when he claimed both divisions of the concluding older geldings’ maiden.
Well-backed 5-4 favourite, Gale Force Oscar carried the multiple champion to success in the first division as the son of Oscar, who is trained in Tubber by his rider’s brother Paurick for Tynagh, County Galway businesswoman, Mary Maloney, showed all the right qualities when running on strongly inside the ­final half-mile to hold the renewed effort of runner-up Carmels Boy by a neck.
Half an hour later, the O’Connor six-timer was completed as the man who has completely changed the face of point-to-point riding in Ireland returned to a rapturous reception aboard Casson in the second division.
Punters had well and truly latched onto the O’Connor bandwagon at this stage with the six-year-old going to post a very warm 4/6 favourite and the son of Alflora made no mistake when ­surging clear from the penultimate fence to record an effortless eight-length win over the Niall Kelly-ridden Wild Irish.
It was fitting that Casson should round off a terrific afternoon for award-winning O’Connor as it was the winner’s Scottish owner, Ronnie Bartlett, and his Ballymena trainer, Ian Ferguson, that provided the Tubber maestro with the second leg of his historic Cheltenham Festival 2011 double courtesy of 33-1 outsider, Zemsky, in the Christie’s Foxhunter Chase at Prestbury Park last March.