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Gordon Elliott bossed his local track with seven winners across the 2023 Navan Racing Festival including the Sunday showpiece, the Troytown Handicap Chase, writes Ben Hart. 

The Cullentra handler scored three winners on Saturday and a further four on Sunday to top the trainer charts.  

Elliott's Coko Beach sprang a surprise in Sunday’s Grade 3, holding off better-fancied stablemates in the three-mile affair as teenage jockey Danny Gilligan saddled a memorable victory.  

“He's a great horse and we're lucky to have him. He's been knocking on the door in all those races, so he deserved to win one," Elliott told Racing TV. 

"Jack (Kennedy, Run Wild Fred) actually kind of wanted to ride him, but I wanted to claim off him and thank God I did. Danny is a great little rider and it's a valuable 5lb. 

Coko Beach lands the €100,000 @BarOneRacing Troytown Handicap Chase with a brilliant performance in the @NavanRacecourse highlight under Danny Gilligan for trainer @gelliott_racing 🏆 pic.twitter.com/2WL7KW3qGL

— Horse Racing Ireland (@HRIRacing) November 19, 2023

"I thought it was a good race to watch. It was helter-skelter the whole way, they went a good gallop and all horses seemed to be home safe. 

“He's a bit of a boyo at home, he's just a character. He had a good run in Limerick the last day. 

"In the past he hasn't been that strong of a finisher, he's often faded out from the last home.”  

Croke Park had earlier crossed first in the John Lynch Carpets & Flooring Monksfield Novice Hurdle, leaving Elliott to celebrate a Graded double.  

He fielded the majority of the riders in both Grade 3s, but that did not make him any less delighted after a pair of pleasing victories. 

"It's massively important for Navan racecourse, for the sponsors Bar One and for Irish racing that these races are full,” he told Racing TV.  

"I'll support them and so will my owners. I don't know if it's the type of slow horses that I buy, but I seem to have a lot of them!" 

Just as he did on Saturday, Elliott claimed the opener as favourite Kala Conti dominated the three-year-old Hurdle.  

Henry de Bromhead then added to his Saturday scalps with Look To The West in the Mares Hurdle before Ian Patrick Donoghue’s St Denis’s Well emerged a shock 40/1 winner in the two-mile Hurdle.  

Stuart Crawford’s Dorking Cork edged the Bar One Racing Handicap Hurdle before Elliott’s fourth winner came via American Mike. 

And the final race of the day went the way of Gavin Cromwell, with Only By Night bringing the curtain down on the 2023 festival.