Down Royal Tips: Envoi to down Gerri in Saturday’s feature

We’re set for a cracking Saturday afternoon at Down Royal, with much attention on the return of Gold Cup hopeful Gerri Colombe in the G1 Champion Chase.

I fancy one to spoil the party – while I’m rather keen on a mare in the race immediately before.

13:45 – Foxy Girl @ 7/2

I’m confident Henry De Bromhead’s Foxy Girl is well-handicapped, which she has a chance to prove in this 0-150 Listed handicap hurdle over 2m1f.

The five-year-old performed with plenty of credit on her debut for the Knockeen handler back in December last year, before getting off the mark in a good race at Limerick just a few weeks later.

She beat the Willie Mullins-trained In Excess that day, who won his next start by a whopping 11L, and had the rest of the field well-beaten. Solid form, it’s fair to say.

Her subsequent assignment was the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, and she certainly wasn’t disgraced in finishing 8/21. I also thought it was interesting she went off the stable’s shortest-priced runner, over the eventual runner-up Magical Zoe.

The selection was very keen in the early stages of that race but still had the required class to travel into the bend still on the bridle. She can be forgiven for tiring, given her enthusiasm at the start.

She now goes handicapping off a mark of 123 – which is a rating four pounds lower than at HQ – with the assistance of a first-time hood, which will hopefully help her settle better. She must have a great chance.

14:20 – Envoi Allen @ 5/1

The very next race is the G1 Champion Chase – the feature of this two-day meeting – which is all about Gerri Colombe.

Gordon Elliott’s seven-year-old is unlucky not to be unbeaten in all nine starts under rules, with the only blot on his copybook being his narrow defeat in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase earlier this year, and at present he rates a big player in the Gold Cup division this season.

Elliott certainly thinks so. In a recent stable tour, he said “my job is to have him in the best place I can for that day [Gold Cup day] and I don’t want to bottom him out before we get there.” He also warned “he will improve plenty for the run”.

Given those comments, and the fact I don’t really rate last year’s staying novices, I’m taking him on as he takes on credible rivals on his first try in open company.

One of those is De Bromhead’s Envoi Allen. The three-time Cheltenham Festival winner loves it round here, winning on all four of his trips to the Northern Irish venue – including this very race last year.

Not only does he excel at Down Royal, but he’s race-fit having finished third in a Grade 2 at Gowran Park over a month ago. That form was given a fair boost recently too, with Gentlemansgame winning the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby last weekend. A late drift that day told a story – he wasn’t fit, so expect a much-improved performance on Saturday.

I won’t sit here and tell you the selection will beat Gerri Colombe, but if he’s ever going to do it, it’s now – and his current price is much too big in my humble opinion.