WE are starting to see some of the better National Hunt horses emerge now, not least at Down Royal last week, where the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase took centre stage and provided a thrilling finish.
Down Royal and the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase is Envoi Allen’s manor. In the last six years, he has won at this meeting on five occasions. He had to fight hard for this one, with Hewick rallying in the closing stages, just half a length between them at the line.
This race was steadily run, with the pace not picking up until the final four furlongs. The steady pace allowed all five runners to save energy for relatively strong finishes, as evidenced by their Finishing Speed percentages.
1st: Envoi Allen: 111.79%
2nd: Hewick: 110.38%
3rd: Gerri Colombe: 106.95%
4th: Visionarian: 105.76%
5th: Delta Work: 105.25%
These figures suggest that this was a test of speed rather than stamina. The sectional times produced by Envoi Allen show where he used his speed and his third last furlong of 11.92s to take him past Hewick (12.49s) was the decisive point in the race.
Hewick rallied, producing a faster final furlong than Envoi Allen, but the race was won courtesy of the superior speed that Envoi Allen produced.
Final Four Furlong Sectionals
Envoi Allen vs Hewick
2m 5f: 13.91s /13.82s
2m 6f: 11.93s /12.49s
2m 7f: 13.36s /13.72s
3m: 15.08s /14.96s
In terms of jumping, the data is more positive about Hewick than Envoi Allen. Hewick gained an 8.72 length advantage over the field with his slick accurate jumping, whereas Envoi Allen lost 5.08mph on average over the obstacles and therefore only managed to gain 1.98 lengths over the field.
This is typical for each of them, with Envoi Allen needing to improve his jumping to be competitive in races like the King George at Kempton.
As for Gerri Colombe, his trainer Gordon Elliott said he was not happy with him after jumping the second fence. It may be that he was not suited by this relative test of speed, he was certainly unable to match the pace of the first two in the final four furlongs.
Final Four Furlong Splits
Envoi Allen: 54.28s
Hewick: 54.99s
Gerri Colombe: 57.18s
He is not the best of jumpers and performed to type here. He lost 1.05 lengths on the field with his jumping, but given he has run much better in the past when jumping just as poorly, this does not explain his wide margin defeat. He will surely be seen to better effect in a race with a stronger tempo.
AFTER a seven-month lay-off, Brighterdaysahead returned with an impressive three and three-quarter length success in the Grade 3 Bottlegreen Hurdle, her trainer Gordon Elliott suggesting that the Champion Hurdle is a possible target.
This race was run at a strong gallop, with the first two finishing the race evenly and recording FSP’s of 100.75% and 101.07% respectively.
Brighterdaysahead dictated the tempo averaging 14.32s furlongs for the first mile and a half. She then maintained the gallop, averaging 14.22s for the final four furlongs. This strong even tempo was too much for her rivals, particularly Daddy Long Legs, who was a bit keen and was let down by his jumping.
Brighterdaysahead is a tremendous jumper. In this race, she gained 5.33 lengths on the field with her jumping and, on average, only lost 2.66mph at her hurdles. She did make a mistake at the final flight, losing 4.58mph, but it took her only 1.00s to recover her speed and gallop out relentlessly to see off the strong finishing King Of Kingsfield.
This was not a one-off, as far as her jumping was concerned. She has been consistently good at her hurdles. In her last five starts, she has gained lengths on the fields she has faced as detailed below.
Race IQ Lengths gained jumping
1. Down Royal +5.33
2. Aintree +5.89
3. Cheltenham + 0.61
4. Navan +5.25
That Cheltenham figure was achieved in a falsely run Mares’ Novices Hurdle. She is clearly at her best when there is a decent gallop. She will be a very good chaser one day and will be very hard to beat over hurdles when racing against her own sex.
Daddy Long Legs was a disappointment. Essentially, he was let down by his jumping, losing 2.71 lengths on the field at his hurdles and this is a familiar story with him.
In nine starts over hurdles, he has gained ground on the field in only two of those races and it seems that, when he faces a decent gallop, his jumping suffers.
IT wasn’t to be for City Of Troy in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where the nature of attritional dirt racing proved beyond his turf racing nature.
It was a bold attempt to cover him in glory at the end of his career, but he ended up covered in dirt after a tardy start and an inability to act on the surface. His long stride and low cadence meant that he could not get any purchase on the surface against battle-hardened dirt racers.
It was a disappointing end to a career that garnered lots of interest and divided opinion, but this defeat should not tarnish his reputation, which is founded upon a scintillating two-year-old career and two top-class performances as a three-year-old in the Derby and Juddmonte International.
The two days of the Breeders’ Cup were characterised by very strong gallops, with jockeys anxious to get a decent early position on a very tight track. This led to most races being won by horses coming from off the pace.
The best performance on the clock over the two days belongs to Sierra Leone in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where a very strong gallop enabled him to close from the rear of the field and post a Beyer Speed figure of 112. This is the highest figure posted on the dirt in the USA this year and is indicative of him being a top-class dirt horse, with Saudi Arabia and Dubai possibly on the agenda next year.