Honeysuckle’s sweet run

THE Drinmore was just one of three Grade 1s on an all-round excellent card at Fairyhouse on Sunday, and the other two produced winning performances of no small significance, too.

Honeysuckle was thoroughly authoritative in taking the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle by nine lengths from Bacardys, with a still-off-form Apple’s Jade back in third.

This might not have been the stiffest opposition, but Honeysuckle is looking close to top-notch now, earning a 158 figure here after a slight upward adjustment on the back of a 63.2s time (105% finishing speed) from three out.

Honeysuckle looks to have the speed to cope with a return to two miles, though it should be noted that the ground was testing (somewhere between soft and heavy) here. As it is, though, the Mares’ Hurdle, rather than the Champion Hurdle at the shorter trip, may be the plan.

Calibre

The win of Envoi Allen in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle represents really solid form, if not of quite as high a calibre as some were suggesting, with less than 10 lengths covering the first five home.

His overall time was (by my reckoning) 4.6s quicker than Cerberus in the opening Grade 3 Juvenile Hurdle, 1.2s faster than Janidil in a useful handicap hurdle and even 0.1s quicker than Eric Bloodaxe in the concluding bumper (which was minus nine hurdles).

That results in a base timefigure of 147, upped to 150 on the back of a 60.9s (106.1% finishing speed) split from three out, which takes Envoi Allen to the top of the novice-hurdling tree, one ahead of the runner-up here, Abacadabras.

Disappointing

That earlier time for Cerberus was rather disappointing and is not exonerated by sectionals, as he was 1.0s slower than Envoi Allen from three out. We are still awaiting a truly convincing juvenile hurdler.

Janidil and Eric Bloodaxe ran times of 131 and 107 respectively, incidentally.

The best time performance at Fairyhouse on the Saturday came in the opening race, in which the one-time Cheltenham Champion Bumper runner-up Carefully Selected ran an impressive 138 at the first time of asking over larger obstacles, despite a severe blunder at the second-last. In a crowded novice chase scene, he is as promising as most.