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Cheltenham Festival 2023 from the course | Envoi Allen success raises A Plus Tard hopes in Gold Cup
Adam Houghton was our man on track as Envoi Allen fulfilled his potential in the Ryanair Chase for Henry De Bromhead, a man trying to revive A Plus Tard ahead of Friday's Gold Cup.
“I think you’re going to see the real Envoi Allen today.”
Those were the words of Henry de Bromhead when I caught up with him on the Cheltenham gallops this morning and how right he was as Envoi Allen stormed to victory in the Ryanair Chase, his third Festival win but his first for three years after a spell where it looked like he would never fulfil the abundant potential he showed in his early career.
The start of his difficulties can be traced back to this very meeting in 2021 when he lined up as the 4/9 favourite for the Marsh Novices’ Chase having won each of his previous 11 races under Rules, including the Champion Bumper in 2019 and Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle in 2020.
The Marsh was Envoi Allen’s first run for De Bromhead – he was moved just a few weeks before the Festival after his previous trainer Gordon Elliott was imposed with a six-month suspension – and it’s fair to say that life with his new yard didn’t get off to the best of starts at Cheltenham as he fell at the fourth fence.
De Bromhead has been trying to find the key to Envoi Allen ever since. He’d still managed to win three more races before today, but even then he’d been making hard work of it, lacking the aura of invincibility he’d had previously, and his latest run when down the field in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day was just downright disappointing.
Contrast that with Shishkin – so impressive when bouncing back to his best with an emphatic victory in last month’s Ascot Chase – and it looked like there could only be one winner of the Ryanair, he too bidding for a third Festival win having won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2020 before delivering where Envoi Allen couldn’t at the 2021 Festival as he justified odds-on favouritism in the Sporting Life Arkle.
However, whereas it was Envoi Allen’s jumping which had let him down back then, this time it was Shishkin who found himself hitting a few fences. He managed to just about stay on his feet, but the worst mistake of the lot at the third last simply cost him too much ground and Envoi Allen was away and gone by the time he finally hit top gear on the run in.
It’s that change of gear which had been lacking in Envoi Allen’s performances over the last three years, but it’s for good reason that he was once considered the star turn in a team of horses owned by Cheveley Park Stud which also included Allaho, winner of the Ryanair in 2021 and 2022, and A Plus Tard, a 15-length winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup 12 months ago.
It’s a sign of how far he’s fallen that this season has seen him resigned as super sub to the sidelined Allaho in both the King George and this race, but he made a much better first of that job here than he did at Kempton and De Bromhead isn’t afraid to dream bigger still with Envoi Allen after a performance which saw him confirm himself a top-class chaser once again.
“He was in such good form at home [ahead of today] and everyone was delighted with him,” De Bromhead reiterated a few hours on from our morning encounter. I was hoping he would put his best foot forward and he duly did. He is a class horse and it is great to see him back.”
“I’m not sure what we do [going forward]. He stayed three miles and the Gold Cup is the race. I’d say if A Plus Tard wasn’t in it, he would have possibly run in it. We will see what we do next and just enjoy today.”
Cheltenham Day Three: Ranked
1. Envoi Allen all class in Ryanair revival
2. Stage Star delights raucous syndicate owners
3. Sire du Berlais defies his advancing years
4. You Wear It Well dominates in Dawn Run
5. McConnell lands first Festival success with Seddon
6. Good times back for Tony Martin in Pertemps
7. Angels Dawn edges Kim Muir thriller
As for A Plus Tard’s Gold Cup prospects, his supporters can certainly take heart from the way Envoi Allen bounced back from a below-par run in Britain towards the end of last year with what was arguably a career-best effort. He’ll be trying to do likewise tomorrow having not been seen on a racecourse since being pulled up in the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November.
On the other hand, followers of Gold Cup favourite Galopin des Champs didn’t get the form boost they were looking for in the Ryanair as Irish Gold Cup runner-up Fury Road trailed in a well-beaten sixth, continuing a frustrating week in the Grade One races for Elliott, who can’t have taken any consolation from seeing his former stable star run away with the prize.
Elliott’s form figures in the Grade Ones at this year’s Festival stood at 8P33728036 after the Ryanair, including defeats at short prices for Gerry Colombe in Wednesday’s Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase and for Mighty Potter in the Turners Novices’ Chase which kicked off this card.
Instead, the Turners went the way of Stage Star for the 13-times champion trainer Paul Nicholls, who was back among the winners at the Cheltenham Festival for the first time since 2020 when Shishkin and Envoi Allen were just novice hurdlers.
Mighty Potter could finish only third having been sent off the 4/6 favourite, but the sound of his bubble bursting couldn’t be heard above the noise made by the many members of the syndicate involved in Stage Star, Owners Group 044. They were matched in their ebullient celebrations by Nicholls, clearly relishing getting one over on the Irish after a couple of comprehensive defeats for his Grade One-winning novice hurdlers Tahmuras and Hermes Allen earlier in the week.
Stage Star was a Grade One-winning novice hurdler himself last season and he is fast becoming the poster boy for micro-share ownership, giving his legion of supporters the thrill of being involved with a highly talented racehorse.
Most importantly, he’s doing so at a fraction of the cost that usually comes with being involved in a horse capable of making an impact at the Festival, at least in this day and age when the expensive point-to-point recruits in the care of Mullins, Elliott and co seem to be all-conquering.
“I think we paid £59 to buy into him,” said Owners Group member Karl Budge afterwards. So only a bit less than the £400,000 it cost to buy Envoi Allen after he won his sole outing in Irish points.
€8,000 purchase Notlongtillmay added to the feel-good factor in the Turners by filling the runner-up spot, representing the Leicestershire yard of Laura Morgan which is yet to win a Graded race, while another heartwarming success looked on the cards when Dashel Drasher went to the last in the Stayers’ Hurdle with a clear lead for Jeremy Scott, who is yet to saddle a Festival winner in a training career spanning over 20 years.
However, instead this was where winner number 37 at the meeting came for Elliott, who finally saw his luck turn in the week’s feature events and in no uncertain terms as the sprightly 11-year-old Sire du Berlais led home a 1-2 for the stable – albeit with the help of the stewards as Dashel Drasher was subsequently demoted to third behind Teahupoo after causing interference to that rival in the closing stages.
9/4 favourite Teahupoo – five years the junior of his stable companion – was understandably the main hope for Elliott having won both his previous starts this season since being stepped up in trip, but Sire du Berlais can never ruled out at his beloved Cheltenham and he simply wouldn’t be denied as he stayed on best of all up the hill he knows so well.
Not only was this his sixth Festival win in a row, but victory even saw him emulate Envoi Allen as a three-time Festival winner (won the Pertemps Final in 2019 and 2020), providing another reminder on an afternoon of redemption that form is temporary, class is permanent.
Not at his best when last seen but already a two-time Festival winner – A Plus Tard for the Gold Cup anybody?
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