Envoi Allen to have his 'last hurrah in the Gold Cup' at Cheltenham

“We’ll have him primed for Cheltenham and give it a go. The Thompsons are keen to do it, and so are we. The plan is for it to be his last start, though if he bolted up in that we might have to rethink it!”

Fri, 12 Dec, 2025 - 06:22

Tommy Lyons

At his Knockeen Stables in Co Waterford, Henry de Bromhead played host to the launch of the Christmas festival in Leopardstown and while he will be strongly represented over the course of the four days, he revealed that stable stalwart Envoi Allen will not be amongst the flock heading for the Foxrock festivities.

Instead, the veteran will go straight to Cheltenham where he will put a line under a stellar career with an audacious tilt at the Gold Cup.

The Cheveley Park Stud-owned gelding, who will be 12 at the turn of the year, has graced the race tracks since December 2018 and has amassed a total of 17 wins under rules, ten of which have been at the top level.

The first of those was in the Champion Bumper at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival and one – the Paddy Power Rewards Club Chase – was at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting, but the most recent came early last month at Down Royal, where he won the Champion Chase for the third time, and put a sixth course victory from seven visits on his record.

So impressed was his trainer with that most recent success, he and connections decided that it would be the right thing to do to keep Envoi Allen fresh for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Given that he has been to every Festival there since 2019 – and won there three times – what better place for him to have his swansong? And that with his first attempt at picking up racing’s blue riband event.

“He’s unbelievable, how much he enjoys it all,” said de Bromhead. “You could loose-school him in the indoor school and he’s like a three-year-old going round. He just loves the game.

“He’s brilliant, really, really good. He’s going to have his last hurrah in the Gold Cup, that’s what we’ve agreed and we’re really looking forward to it – he’ll go straight there.

“I think that was one of his best performances up at Down Royal and we said we would just keep him fresh. Like myself, he’s getting older, so less is more for him nowadays.

Longevity is the characteristic which allows racing fans to engage more emotionally with National Hunt’s stars than with its Flat counterparts, and while Envoi Allen is an obvious example of one such leading light, de Bromhead has a happy knack for achieving it with his horses. Bob Olinger and Captain Guinness fit beautifully into the category, but what is it that helps his horses to continue to perform into their veteran years?

“It’s a good question. I suppose maybe we’re not as hard on them when they’re younger, but my main thing is that it’s so hard to get a good horse and when you do get them, it’s about trying to maintain them, to keep them at that level for as long as you can,” reasoned de Bromhead.

“We wouldn’t have the same turnover as some of the other yards in terms of numbers of horses coming in. We’re lucky to have great support, but we don’t have those big numbers.

“Like football clubs in a transfer market, the more you spend, and more you have coming in and the likelier you are to stumble on those good ones. So, when we find them, our aim is to maintain them for as long as we can.

“We have Emily Kate (Robinson) with us, and she does dressage with our horses: flat work that I’d compare to the likes of Ryan Giggs or Johnny Sexton doing pilates. It’s all about trying to maintain them and keeping them as agile as you possibly can. We don’t tend to run those horses a huge number of times a year either. We might run those Grade One horses maybe four or five times a season.”

While Envoi Allen will not be on Leopardstown’s Christmas list, fellow veteran Bob Olinger, who won last season’s Stayers’ Hurdle, is expected to head the team.

“He’s in the three-mile hurdle, and we’re heading that way. There’s that or the race in Cheltenham on New Year’s Day (Grade Two Relkeel Hurdle), which he won a couple of years ago.

“He does have a record around Cheltenham, but he’d have a Grade One penalty there, whereas he’d be running off levels here. We’ll balance that out and see, but he’s in good form.”

Former Champion Chaser Captain Guinness, who was well beaten on his recent return to action, is another ready for the trip to Dublin.

“He’s gone a little bit inconsistent, but he still came back and finished third in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham,” added de Bromhead. “He was disappointing in Navan, but on heavy ground at this stage of his life … I wanted to get a run into him. I probably regretted it afterwards but Darragh looked after him.

“Leopardstown probably wouldn’t be his favourite track but it’s a good race and it’s a good opportunity for him to have a run.”