One of Henry De Bromhead's leading staying chasers and the ride of Rachael Blackmore, Minella Indo is looking to bounce back to his top class form line after falling last time out.
The eight year old has raced 11 times during his short career and has only finished outside the top three in his point to point and last start when falling.
Two seasons ago on his final two starts over hurdles he really came to life landing the Grade One Albert Bartlett at the festival at a huge price of 50/1 and then backed that up at the Punchestown festival when landing another classy Grade One.
He went novice chasing last season and after running well on debut behind star mare Laurina, he landed a Beginners Chase at Navan before narrowly being beaten in the RSA Novices' Chase at the festival, With Champ pipping him on the line.
Coming out of novice company this term he started his season off at Wexford at the back end of October in the Grade Three Memorial Chase where he jumped the field into submission, going on to win the event by 25 lengths.
Having again put up another superb performance at Navan when beating Brahma Bull by close to eight lengths his handler sent him to Leopardstown at Christmas in the Grade One Savills Chase.
😍 Minella Indo is back
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) October 26, 2020
🏇 Nine races
🥇 Four wins
🏆 G1 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle
🏆 G1 Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle
🥈 RSA Chase second
👀 2021 Gold Cup contender
Minella Indo makes a winning reappearance for @HenrydeBromhead & @rachaelblackmor at @WexfordRacecour pic.twitter.com/CeKyyhYtB8
Going off as favourite, many were looking for the gelding to put up a big run, but were left wanting more after falling for the first time in his career with a circuit to go.
The horse was none the worse for the tumble and Blackmore is looking for a big performance from the stable star, with only four other runners currently left in the entries for the event.
(Credit ATR) She said: “Minella Indo has been fantastic to me. He gave me my first Grade One in the Albert Bartlett in Cheltenham, which was an incredible day.
“We’re really looking forward to running him. It was unfortunate what happened to him in Leopardstown the last day, (but) he seems to have been very good since – I gave him a pop (over fences) last week and there seems to be no ill effects.
“It was just one of those things and we move on to the next day.”
Minella Indo is the 2/1 favourite for the event on Sunday, with Kemboy in at second favourite at 7/2, with stable mate Melon and last year's winner of the race closely grouped in the market at 4/1 and 5/1 respectively.
The Gordon Elliott trained second strong The Storyteller makes up the last runner in the race at 8/1.