Elle Est Belle

Elle Est Belle was a seriously impressive winner of the mares’ bumper. Held up last of the six runners early on, and kept wide, she moved easily into the home straight. She made her ground under a motionless Harry Skelton from the three-furlong marker, she joined Windswept Girl inside the final furlong, and she moved clear effortlessly to win by six lengths.

This was Dan Skelton’s filly’s competitive debut, she hadn’t run in a bumper or in a point-to-point before this, but she was strong in the market, even allowing for six non-runners, and she couldn’t have been any more impressive than she was. She was comfortably better than Windswept Girl, who had won her only bumper, and she finished well clear of Hunny Moon, who had also won her only bumper. There is plenty of stamina in her pedigree, her dam is a half-sister to Carlitos, who won a handicap chase over two miles and six and a half furlongs at Newbury on soft ground, so she should get further than two miles in time. A half-sister to Rock On Rocco, who won a novice hurdle for Tom George last February and who ran well in a novice chase at Kempton last week, she is only four, and she will be of interest now in a better mares’ bumper. This is a race that has been won by good mares in the past, including La Bague Au Roi and Posh Trish, who won the listed mares’ bumper at Cheltenham’s November meeting on her next run, and that is surely the logical target for Elle Est Belle now.

Aintree 25^th October 2020