BATTLEOVERDOYEN made hard work of beating two rivals to win the Grade 1 Neville Hotels Novice Chase at Leopardstown.

What had looked a competitive race on paper overnight cut up badly on account of the ground drying out to good.

Four of the initial seven declared runners were taken out, including Henry de Bromhead’s Albert Bartlett winner Minella Indo and Willie Mullins’ Carefully Selected.

The defections meant Gordon Elliott’s Battleoverdoyen was sent off at the prohibitive odds of 4/9, and all appeared to be going to plan for Davy Russell for most of the race.

However, between the final two fences stablemate Champagne Classic emerged as a persistent challenger who would not lie down.

Battleoverdoyen began to hang markedly to his left after the last and ended up on the far rail, and once he reached it, Russell was finally able to ride a finish, keeping him up to his work to win by a length.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE IRISH FIELD & READ ALL OUR PREMIUM CONTENT