Romeo Coolio’s Cheltenham race decision to be made late by Gordon Elliott

Gordon Elliott will decide close to the Festival whether Grade One winner Romeo Coolio runs in the Arkle Trophy or steps up to three miles for the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase

Gordon Elliott will leave it until the eleventh hour before deciding which contest Romeo Coolio tackles at next month’s Cheltenham Festival. The seven-year-old finished third in last March’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle before embarking on an unbeaten campaign over fences, which has included three Grade 1 triumphs.

His recent 2m assignments at Leopardstown have required maximum effort, particularly when narrowly defeating Kargese in the Irish Arkle, leading Elliott to believe his runner would benefit from a longer trip. That would necessitate competing over 3m1f in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at the Festival, though the Arkle Trophy over the shorter distance remains under consideration.

“We’re going to keep everything up in the air for the moment. We have the Arkle and the Brown Advisory,” the trainer revealed at his Cullentra House base on Tuesday. I don’t think three miles will be a problem at all, just whether it’s the right thing to do at this stage of his career or not I’m not sure.

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“The owners are from the UK and are very keen to have runners at Cheltenham. If the middle-distance race was still there we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I suppose for racing it’s good that it’s not as it will make either race better, but for Romeo it’s not ideal.”

Elliott possesses a formidable squad of novice hurdlers heading to the Cotswolds in four weeks, spearheaded by Supreme Novices’ Hurdle favourite El Cairos. Skylight Hustle claimed a Grade One victory at Leopardstown over Christmas across two miles, but is expected to tackle a longer distance in the Turners Novices’ Hurdle, whilst Ballyfad could contest either race after being narrowly beaten by Talk The Talk at the Dublin Racing Festival.

“I haven’t spoken to Michael and Eddie (O’Leary, of Gigginstown House Stud) about Ballyfad yet, but my own feeling is the further he goes the better he’s going to be,” Elliott continued.

“He’s not a fancy work horse at home and if you look at him in his races, he nearly looks beaten turning in but he’s very gutsy and keeps picking up. That might suit the Supreme as well, but he has both options.

“We’ll worry about it a week or 10 days out, if it was tomorrow my feeling is the middle-distance race would suit him better, but I suppose we’ll have to keep an eye on the ground and the weather.”

Having already secured 41 Festival victories, Elliott is preparing to deploy two significant contenders in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, with previous winner Teahupoo set to be accompanied by stablemate Honesty Policy.

Teahupoo finished runner-up to Bob Olinger when attempting consecutive victories last season, whilst Honesty Policy established himself as a genuine challenger by finishing an impressive third in the Long Walk at Ascot on his sole outing this season.

Elliott said: “Teahupoo probably sets the standard and for me Honesty Policy is the young gun coming behind them. They’re two nice horses, but Teahupoo has the form and I wouldn’t swap him.

“I was impressed with Honesty Policy at Ascot – he was the horse to take out of it, he hit the line strong. I was keen to run him at Navan the other day but the ground was just so heavy and he’s not the biggest or most robust horse. With every week you get a week closer, we’ll get a racecourse gallop into him and he’ll go straight to Cheltenham.”

Other leading contenders for the stable include Wodhooh, who is bound for the Mares’ Hurdle, and Oldschool Outlaw, who must rank among Elliott’s strongest prospects of the entire festival in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle.

He said: “I was impressed with Oldschool Outlaw the last day. She has a good attitude. I liked the way she quickened from the last to the line.

“She’s obviously beaten Bambino Fever already and while she’ll have come on ours will have as well. I think she’s improved at home, she’s improving the whole time. She’s a nice mare.”