Elliott saddled six winners from 29 runners at last year’s Festival but his impressive strike-rate of 20% was despite the performances of the four favourites in his team. Three failed to finish while Tombstone, the 7-2 market leader for the Coral Cup, finished 22nd. Samcro ran away with the Grade One Deloitte Novice Hurdle last time out but, despite his cramped odds, Elliott feels he still needs to improve to win next month. Last year we took Death Duty [who started a 13-8 favourite for the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle] and we thought he’d win but he didn’t travel and got very light. Elliott is a 2-1 chance while Nicky Henderson, the first British trainer in the list, is 9-4, and it is 25-1 bar the three.

Source: The Guardian February 25, 2018 16:30 UTC