HIS many friends and fans in Northern Ireland will have been delighted to see Gordon Elliott send out so many winners at Cheltenham during the week and, on Wednesday, most will have backed J.P. McManus’s Cause of Causes and Jamie Codd to win their third Festival race.

Nine lengths back in second under Davy Russell in the Glenfarclas cross-county race came another Cheltenham regular from Cullentra Stables, Bless The Wings, who has finished in the first four in six visits to Prestbury Park in the past three seasons. Running in the colours of Adrian Butler and Stephen O’Connnor, whose firm The Underwriting Exchange sponsors Elliott’s yard, the 12-year-old is by Winged Love who, on the same afternoon, sired the winner of the handicap chase at Hungtindon, Rocknrollrambo.