5th-Nov-2022

I am backing Envoi Allen in the Champion Chase.

I have been waiting for him to step up to three miles for almost a year now, I thought that he would be a King George horse last season.  I just think that he has unfinished business over three miles.

He has only attempted the trip once, in the Grade 1 novices’ chase at the 2021 Punchestown Festival, when he clearly didn’t give his running.  He was such a good bumper horse and novice hurdler, and novice chaser, over two and a half miles, and, out of a half-sister to Paddy Power Chase winner Auvergnat, a mare who won over two miles and seven furlongs herself, you can easily argue that he wants a stamina test.  He just didn’t have the pace to mix it with the best two-milers last season.

He won the intermediate chase on this day last year over two and a half miles, and he won his maiden hurdle and his beginners’ chase at this meeting.  He is three for three Down Royal, at this meeting.  Also, the soft ground is in his favour and against a few of his rivals.  It may be that he is not the horse that he once was, or that he threatened to be, but it may well be that the step up to three miles will allow him go forward again.

ENVOI ALLEN WON (ADV 9/2, SP 7/2)