Hatton's Grace hero Teahupoo tests the water over three miles for the first time in the John Mulhern Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park on Thursday.Gordon Elliott’s charge finished last behind Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Punchestown Champion Hurdle last season, but turned that form on its head when inflicting a first career defeat on Henry de Bromhead’s superstar mare at Fairyhouse last month.That victory came over the intermediate distance of two and a half miles and Elliott is keen to see how he fares over an even longer trip in a bid to discover whether the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March is a realistic target.When asked if he was looking forward to running Teahupoo over three miles, Elliott said: "I’m looking forward to every day!"It is a step up in trip and it looks like it will suit him, so we will see what happens."We will get Thursday out of the way, but that (Stayers’ Hurdle) is what we are thinking.
We are dreaming rather than thinking."Teahupoo will be ridden by Davy Russell, who is out to secure his first Graded success since coming out of retirement to fill in for the injured Jack Kennedy.We need your consent to load this comcast-player contentWe use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.
Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences"It was no surprise to us what this lad did in Fairyhouse last month as he was simply returning to the level we know he can perform at," Russell told his Star Sports blog."He was good here in Gowran last February and we know conditions are in his favour.