Norton trainer Brian Ellison praises star horse Marsh Warbler

“TELL him about Marsh Warbler,” Brian Ellison instructs rider Pamela Haigh as our jeep winds past the string of horses on their way back from the Malton gallops.

Pam is a very lucky lady.

She gets to ride the Norton trainer’s chief Cheltenham hope in his work and can sum up one of the leading lights for next month’s Triumph Hurdle in just two words.

“He’s brilliant.”

Ellison’s Spring Cottage Stables has a glorious history.

William I’Anson won the Derby twice from here, with Blink Bonny in 1857 and Blair Athol seven years later.

In Marsh Warbler, Ellison has his fingers crossed that a new chapter can be written in yard folklore – that he can secure the biggest victory of his career at jump racing’s showpiece event.

The four-year-old forms the pivot of his Cheltenham team – a force which also includes the Newbury totesport Trophy Hurdle runner-up Bothy and the galloping Neptune Equester, along with Palomar and Ultimate.

“Everyone wants a winner at Cheltenham – every trainer, owner, jockey – everyone wants a Cheltenham horse,” Ellison declared. “It is great to have horses like Marsh Warbler, Bothy and Ultimate that go there with a chance.”

Marsh Warbler’s preparations for his date with destiny on March 18 were stepped up a notch on Tuesday when Ellison worked him over a mile and a half at Southwell.

He is not the type to resort to hyperbole.

So when he tells you he was “delighted” after Marsh Warbler cantered past stable-mate Moyenne Corniche on the Fibresand – having already described him as “the best juvenile hurdler I’ve ever trained” – you should sit up and take notice.

After maiden and juvenile hurdle wins at Bangor and Sedgefield, Marsh Warbler gave Ellison the first Grade 1 triumph of his career when comfortably taking the Future Champions Finale Hurdle at Chepstow in January.

He will be up against the likes of Grandouet, a juvenile hurdle winner at Ascot and Newbury, and Dermot Weld’s filly Unaccompanied at Cheltenham but the trainer is confident.

“His owners, Kristian Strangeway and Dan Gilbert, bought him out of a seller,” he said. “They thought he had potential and wanted to see whether he would win a few hurdle races. I thought he would win by 20 lengths on his debut (at Market Rasen) and I said to Kristian, ‘He just won’t get beat’.

“Unfortunately, he went to the first and Tony McCoy went across him and he just got frightened. He hardly jumped a hurdle after that and still finished third.

“Three days later he went to Bangor and won by 20 lengths. His jumping has improved and he has got better. He’s not the sort of horse that stands out.

“He just goes and does his job but, when he works, he is exceptional. He is in the Supreme Novices as well but, at the moment, everything is geared towards the Triumph and to keep him in his own age group.”

Cheltenham is the Marmite of racecourses. Horses either love or hate its notorious undulations but Ellison believes Marsh Warbler will be well suited to the unique test.

“He won at Sedgefield and that’s a track which is up and down,” he said. “That’s like a mini-Cheltenham. It didn’t bother him and he has won on a stiff track like Chepstow.

“He has got a change of gear but he stays well too. It won’t make any difference how he is ridden, either. We drop him out on the gallops and he still comes up cantering. He just has to keep out of trouble and get jumping early.

“He is not a hard horse – he doesn’t need lots of work. We worked him before he went to Chepstow and we took him to Southwell on Tuesday for a mile and a half gallop.

“I wouldn’t want fast ground but, if you look at all the other runners, there are a lot that want softer ground than I would. It just needs to be nice ground.”

If Marsh Warbler represents Ellison’s best chance, Bothy isn’t far behind.

Beaten by Menorah in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham in November, the five-year-old pushed John Quinn’s smart Recession Proof all the way to the line in the rescheduled totesport Trophy Hurdle at Newbury a week ago.

He is entered in both the Coral Cup, on March 16, and the Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle, on March 18, and has Festival experience to draw on – having finished seventh in the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle last year.

“He is entered in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle as well,” added Ellison. “But the first priority is the County Hurdle.

“At Newbury, his jockey, Danny Cook, thought he should have changed his whip and kept him straight but, regardless of that, he had a blinder. The other horse, Recession Proof, is a very good horse as well.

“He is more like a terrier and slower ground helps him because he won’t stop galloping. Last year, the ground was too quick for him.

“He has only had six runs. He has won three times, twice finished second and finished seventh at Cheltenham when the ground was too fast.

“We have not been beaten by bad horses and I just hope the handicapper gives us a chance. He has only had two runs this year over jumps – mainly because the weather was bad and we missed a good race in December but he is definitely ground dependent.”

Neptune Equester stayed on well at a rain-sodden Haydock last weekend to finish third, behind Back In Focus and Court In Motion, and the eight-year-old is likely to lock horns with the pair again in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle on March 18.

“That is the plan at the moment,” Ellison confirmed. “He is a good horse and a Scottish National horse. He will stay all day. He was second in the Durham National last year. He has got gears and I think he wants better ground as well.

“At Haydock, he was still galloping to the line. We previously had a few issues with him where he wasn’t eating properly and he was having a bit of a problem with his back after a fall he had at Market Rasen.

“We have got him right and he came out of Saturday’s race and never stopped eating. In the last couple of weeks he has just seemed a different horse. He will be galloping when other horses will be stopping.”

Palomar was upstaged by Bothy at Newbury, finishing ninth after being hampered by a falling horse with two fences left to jump. But Ellison reckons the nine-year-old could yet have a part to play at the Festival.

“He is in the County Hurdle and he is in the Martin Pipe as well. He just saw too much daylight at Newbury,” he explained. “He is a horse that really wants dropping in and he runs free and does too much if he sees daylight. He loves all that argy-bargy of coming between horses. When it happens too easily for him he doesn’t seem to enjoy it. He always likes to see that bit of trouble.”

Joining him in the County Hurdle might be Ultimate, who along with Elite Land and Film Festival, both entered in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase, makes up the last of Ellison’s Cheltenham legion.

He said: “He was third last time out, running really well. We ran him last year and he finished fourth and we just thought Cheltenham didn’t suit him.

“We thought it was too stiff for him but he has had his wind done since then and he finished third at Musselburgh earlier this month (in the Scottish Handicap Hurdle).”

Ellison has had to wait for Cheltenham success and he has had his near misses – Latalomne crashing out at the second last of the 2002 Queen Mother Champion Chase when leading a strong field being the best example.

But at the event where racing’s purists gather to salute the season’s best jumpers, there is optimism that this might just be his year.