Elliott toasts Perth success

Gordon Elliott is making a habit of plundering decent prizes on British shores and Backstage provided him with another in the Newwave Recruitment Perth Gold Cup Handicap Chase - emerging as a Galway Plate contender in the process.

The Irishman, a former jockey with Martin Pipe in his younger days, has made a cracking start to his training career and always has to be respected on his trips across the Irish Sea.

Elliott won the Grand National with Silver Birch in 2007 and is steadily building up the quality of his string. His record in Britain is so good he has actually trained more winners here than in his homeland, but he is a regular visitor.

Backstage, available at double-figure prices in the morning but gambled into 3-1 favouritism, was a promising novice chaser with Evan Williams a couple of years ago, and Elliott has had him out point-to-pointing which seems to have rekindled the spark and he also ran respectably in the hunter chases at the Aintree and Punchestown Festivals.

Jason Maguire appeared to be getting the better of Caipiroska before that one sadly broke down, leaving the winner to come home 11 lengths clear of fellow Irish raiders, Michael Hourigan's Some Craic and Tracey Kerr's 100-1 shot All Rise.

"Sending him point-to-pointing really brought him back to life," said Elliott.

"We took him to Aintree and Punchestown because he is a really nice horse but the ground was against him both days.

"He really loves this fast ground and as he is still only seven he's a nice horse to look forward to.

"Because he loves this ground we might keep him going for a bit and the Galway Plate could be a possibility."