Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Envoi joy on chase opener
UNBEATEN Envoi Allen produced a sparkling display, on his chasing debut, in the Advanced NI Scaffolding Beginners
Chase in Down Royal yesterday.
Sent off a red-hot 1/14 shot, Gordon Elliott’s charge jumped impeccably under Jack Kennedy and won, hard held, by six lengths from January Jets to extend his untarnished record to nine from nine.
Trainer Elliott said: “I was very impressed – he did everything right. He was bought to be a chaser and it was always going to be his game.”
And he earmarked the Grade 1 Drinmore, at Fairyhouse on November 29 as “the obvious race” for Envoi Allen next, on the road to Cheltenham, adding: “I’d imagine the Marsh will be the plan.”
Envoi Allen was the middle leg of a treble, on a mixed day, for Elliott, initiated when another unbeaten gelding Farouk D’alene (Jack Kennedy) justified 2/9 favouritism in the opening maiden hurdle and completed by 10/11 shot Chemical Energy (Jamie Codd) in the bumper.
The Cullentra trainer also triumphed with Duffle Coat (Jonathan Burke) in a listed juvenile hurdle in Wetherby.
But there were reverses too for Elliott, notably the defeat of 8/15 shot Abacadabras, by the Henry de Bromhead, above, trained, Champion Hurdlebound four-year-old Aspire Tower (Rachael Blackmore) in the Grade 2 WKD Hurdle.
And the ‘Shark’ Hanlontrained Skyace (66/1) provided the shock of the day, getting up late under Jody Mcgarvey to thwart Elliott’s 6/5 favourite Queens Brook by a head in the Grade 3 mares novice hurdle.