Highland Crystal shines brightest for Elliott

Highland Crystal maintained her flawless record with victory in the Coral “Daily Rewards Shaker” Fillies’ Juvenile Hurdle at Newbury for Gordon Elliott.

The three-year-old won her debut by 14 lengths at Punchestown earlier in the month, her first run of any kind as she did not contest either point-to-points or bumpers.

Sent off the evens favourite for the Listed contest, she did not travel too kindly in the early stages but soon began making steady progress under Jordan Gainford and she eventually hit her stride to strike by an easy six and a half lengths.

Elliott said: “She doesn’t do anything fancy at home and it’s kind of hard to tell where we are but she’s a good mare and we’re lucky.

“We’ll keep her to her own sex I think at the moment and it looks like all she will do is stay.

“To be fair to her, it all happened a bit fast early and I haven’t done much with her the last couple of weeks. I would say she was just a bit green in the race today but the further she went, the better she was, so it’s great.

“Wodhooh (won race two years ago) is a big, old-fashioned chaser whereas this one is perhaps more of a Flat horse going jumping, when she’s actually National Hunt bred. She’s got a big engine though and that is all that matters.

“It’s great to find these Listed races and we’ll probably go back, look at whatever Wodhooh did after this and then work back from there. We’ll get her home and see how she is as she’s had two runs very quick and I’d be shocked if you see her this side of Christmas.”

Owner Brian Acheson added: “It’s all credit to Robert, my son, and Margaret O’Toole who found her in Arqana.

“We ran her in the Academy Hurdle at Punchestown after which Gordon said we’d bring her over here and she was good wasn’t she.”

The winner earned a 12-1 quote for the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and 20-1 for the Triumph with BetVictor.