Ruby Walsh backs Gordon Elliott following criticism over number of Troytown runners

Gordon Elliott being responsible for 15 of the 21 runners in the Bar One Racing Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan has led to plenty of debate.

Social media has been full of comments from punters and others in recent days, with some stating that is "a dreadful look" for the €100,000 contest on day two of the new Navan Racing Festival.

But local trainer Elliott, who is aiming for his sixth victory in the race since 2014, hit back at that criticism on Saturday and said there would only be a handful of runners if he wasn't supporting the race.

He told Racing TV: "You're reading people cutting the back off Gigginstown, Gordon Elliott, Willie Mullins and these people for running large numbers of horses in races... if I didn't run the number of horses I'm running in this race, there'd be only seven or eight runners and for the sponsors that would be embarrassing and for Navan and for Irish racing for a €100,000 race.

"All the owners I have are massive supporters of racing and they want to support these big races and I don't see why anyone should be saying anything. We're not stopping one horse from running in the race. We're not stopping anything from running in it.

"If you go back to Limerick the last day, that race didn't fill, this race hasn't filled so I think if anything I think we're doing good for racing and not for bad."

Ruby Walsh backed Elliott amid the criticism from some quarters, stating that his large number of runners is just evidence of the trainer's success.

Walsh, who was a guest on The Opening Show on ITV ahead of Saturday's card at Cheltenham, was asked if he thought it would be beneficial to have a maximum number of race entries allowed per stable and he strongly disagreed with that idea.

The 12-time champion jockey said: "Trainers are running businesses and small trainers have to attract the investors. Unfortunately, most of the investors are with the bigger trainers, but that's life. You have to build from the bottom up."

He continued: "We live in a democracy and I don't think that (limiting trainers to a certain number of entries in a race) is very democratic so no, I wouldn't be for putting limits on it.

"If you're a good enough trainer that you have amassed that amount of horses, that amount of people willing to invest with you, I don't see how you can say by the way you can only have four. I don't think that's a step forward. It's up to the other trainers to catch up, to get the investors, to take the owners from the bigger trainers and build their own businesses. That's how they all started. That's where Gordon Elliott started, Willie Mullins, they all started small and got big and it's up to other people to catch up."