Down Royal’s two-day Festival of Racing has been a benefit to Gordon Elliott in recent seasons and it was no different last weekend when the Meath trainer sent out no less than eight winners.

Elliott has made no secret about his liking for the course and his intentions to start off the season of some of his best horses there. However, the feature race, the Ladbrokes Champion Chase went to a horse who has been running through the summer, The Storyteller.

This was a deserved win for local owner Pat Sloan’s nine-year-old, who was ridden by another longstanding ally to Elliott, Keith Donoghue. It was both horse and jockey’s second Grade 1 wins.

Donoghue said after the race: “I was very confident coming here today. I was telling everyone I knew that I thought I would win; they were all laughing at me!”

Battleoverdoyen was another nice winner for Elliott in the Grade 2 Lough Construction Chase. Long heralded as the next big thing, the seven-year-old was disappointing last season, but returned in fine fettle to see off Willie Mullins’s Easy Game. The Grade 1 John Durkan Chase at Punchestown is on the cards for him next.

Elliott’s other victories came with young horses, which bodes well for the season ahead.

There were wins for Envoi Allen, Ballyadam, Quilixios, Sir Gerhard, Farouk D’alene and Chemical Energy. In all it was a statement of intent from the 42-year-old who has once again stated his steely ambition to win the Irish trainers’ championship.