Road To Riches to face nine opponents on Saturday

The Noel Meade -trained Road To Riches heads 10 Entries for the Irish Gold Cup, one of four Grade 1 races at Leopardstown next Saturday.


Owned by Gigginstown House Stud, the nine-year-old will be running for the first time since easily landing the Grade 2 Clonmel Oil Chase in November.

Meade is also set to be represented by Wounded Warrior, another owned by Gigginstown House Stud, as he bids to win the €150,000 event for the first time.

Carlingford Lough gave Tony McCoy his final Leopardstown winner when taking the race 12 months ago and he is set to run for trainer John Kiely.

The Ted Walsh-trained Foxrock was runner-up to Carlingford Lough last year and he too looks set to turn out again.

Gilgamboa ran a huge race under top-weight in the valuable Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown at Christmas and he goes in search of his second Grade 1 success having landed the Ryanair Gold Cup Novice Chase at Fairyhouse in April for trainer Enda Bolger.

Willie Mullins puts forward Sir Des Champs, On His Own and Valseur Lido with the Mouse Morris-trained First Lieutenant and Steven Crawford’s Fine Rightly.

There will be 10 runners in the Grade 1 Gain Spring Juvenile Hurdle with local interest focused on the Gavin Cromwell-trained Jer's Girl.

Aidan O'Brien’s Ivanovich Gorbatov and Best Kept Secret will also feature but his entries are outnumbered by Willie Mullins who has three in the race, headed by the runaway Gowran Park winner Footpad. Mullins has also put Allbak Des Places and Let’s Dance in the €85,000 race.

The Grade 1 Deloitte Novice Hurdle has attracted nine entries with Willie Mullins responsible for five. Bellshill, a Grade 1 winner at Naas early last month, heads the Mullins quintet that also includes Thomas Hobson, a recent winner at Warwick and Yorkhill which is unbeaten in four starts for the champion trainer.


The Gordon Elliott-trained Tombstone, as runner-up in the Grade 1 Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown at Christmas is another eye-catching entry.

Zabana, trained in Dunsany by Andy Lynch, is one of 12 runners for the Grade 1 Flogas Novice Chase with Tony Martin’s Blair Peronne also in the line up.


Others include Roi Des Francs and Pont Alexandre which fought out a thrilling finish in a Grade 2 at Naas recently.

Outlander is another notable entry from the Willie Mullins stable with the Mouse Morris-trained Rule The World.