Down Royal report: Envoi Allen makes exciting chasing debut

Gordon Elliott’s runner had little to beat, as reflected by odds of 1-14

Fri, 30 Oct, 2020 - 20:11

Tommy Lyons

Envoi Allen lit up the opening day in Down Royal with an exciting performance in the Advanced NI Scaffolding Beginners’ Chase.

Gordon Elliott’s runner had little to beat, as reflected by odds of 1-14, but this was his chasing debut and much can go wrong. However, for this imposing sort, with a perfect record in eight previous outings under all codes, it was just another opportunity to showcase his class.

When he got in close to the fences, he adjusted himself well and got across them cleanly, and when asked to quicken at the last he was even better.

Jack Kennedy barely had to move a muscle aboard the six-year-old as he eased to a six-length win over January Jets. It was all the evidence we needed to suggest he could be every bit as good over fences as he was over hurdles and in bumpers, and bookmakers reacted by making him 2-1 for the Marsh Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Said his impressed winning trainer: “He’d want to have won the way he won but just the way he jumped (was impressive).

“One down the back he popped, and he let fly at another one, but the one at the last was the most impressive.

“It was nice to get him back, and with a clear round of jumping. He was bought to be a chaser. The horse is a monster. He keeps winning, and as long as he does keep winning, I won’t be complaining.”

Envoi Allen was the middle leg of a short-priced treble for Elliott, the first of which came courtesy of Farouk D’alene in the two-mile-six maiden hurdle. Another horse with plenty of scope, he gave a bold display of jumping and stayed on strongly to beat Pat’s Pick by eight lengths. It was a first winner for Kennedy since his return to action on Thursday.

Elliott’s treble was completed in the Rainbow Communications Bumper in which Chemical Energy and Jamie Codd bounded clear late on to win in the style of yet another potentially top-class horse.

But Elliott did not have it all his own way yesterday, and he suffered the first of two significant reverses when Queens Brook was touched off in the Grade Three Irish Stallion Farms EBF Novice Hurdle. She looked booked for success when jumping the last flight better than Politesse, but 66-1 Skyace, trained by Shark Hanlon and ridden by Jody McGarvey, picked up strongly to catch her in the shadow of the post.

The other reverse was more significant as Abacadabras had to settle for second place behind Aspire Tower in the Grade 2 WKD Hurdle. The winner was sticky over the first few hurdles but warmed to the task well and, after looking in trouble as the odds-on favourite, Abacadabras, and Jason The Militant loomed upsides turning for home, the four-year-old picked up strongly for Rachael Blackmore and stretched clear to an emphatic success.

Winning trainer Henry De Bromhead said: “Delighted. We kind of felt his form tailed off after Christmas but he’s a big horse and he had come straight off the flat, so I just wonder did it all just catch up on him a bit. He was so impressive at Christmas, and it was great to see him back like that. He’s a brilliant horse.”

“He’s only a four-year-old, so hopefully he’ll keep on improving. I think we have to (train him as a Champion Hurdle horse) now.”

Rajin Cajun landed a nice touch when making a winning stable debut for Matthew Smith in the Lough Construction Ltd Handicap Hurdle. Off for 625 days and having finished outside the first 10 in six of his seven previous outings, he was difficult to fancy, but the market certainly found him and he ran out an easy winner under Dillon Maxwell.