ENVOI Allen is quickly into his racing rhythm, settled in second place, at ease under Darragh O’Keeffe. Smooth.

Past the stands and turn to the right, set out on one more circuit of Down Royal’s racecourse, effortlessly in Western Fold’s slipstream. Affordale Fury moves up on the outside and leaves Envoi Allen in third place. But he appears to be unperturbed, his rider appears to be unperturbed, they just continue in their racing rhythm.

And jumping. Stride, stride, jump. Stride, stride, jump.

They go to the turn at the top of the track, three fences to jump, and Darragh O’Keeffe allows his horse to poke his nose in between the two leaders. He flies the third last fence and lands in front, but his rider sits still. Not yet.

He keeps his two rivals close, Affordale Fury to his right, Western Fold to his left, but it is the rider in the Cheveley Park Stud colours, the red silks with the white sash and the blue cap, who is by far the least animated of the three.

It is only when Envoi Allen pings the second last fence and lands in front that his rider gets low in the saddle and asks him to go on and win the race. He is two lengths clear when he rises to the final fence, and he is almost four lengths clear when he hits the line.

Envoi Allen is 11 years old. There was a cheer from the grandstand when he landed over the second last fence, and there was a greater cheer when he and Darragh O’Keeffe arrived back into the winner’s enclosure. The Down Royal crowd gave him the reception that he deserved.

Course specialist

It was the sixth time that the Muhtathir gelding had arrived back into that winner’s enclosure. He won his maiden hurdle at Down Royal in November 2019. Western Fold was six months old then.

He won his beginners’ chase at Down Royal’s Champion Chase meeting in 2020, he won the graduation chase there in 2021 and he won the first of his three Champion Chases there in 2022. And he proved in November that he retained all his class and all his enthusiasm for racing.

You could tell how much that victory at Down Royal in November meant too to his connections, to Darragh O’Keeffe, to his trainer Henry de Bromhead and his team, to Richard Thompson and all at Cheveley Park Stud.

Henry said shortly after the race that they would put him away, give him a break, train him for Cheltenham, and that would be it. That Envoi Allen would have his final race in the 2026 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

“He has taken us on some journey,” says Richard Thompson now. “He has been phenomenal. He has run at seven Cheltenham Festivals, and he has never been out of the first three there when he has completed.”

You can trace the genesis of the Cheveley Park Stud National Hunt project back to the Sir Peter O’Sullevan awards lunch in 2017, when Richard Thompson was sitting beside Willie Mullins.

He came away from that lunch thinking that they should assemble a select group of high-quality National Hunt horses and have them trained by the best trainers in Ireland, and that they should run in the Cheveley Park Stud colours. He presented the idea to his late father David, who was quickly on board.

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The Thompsons had National Hunt horses before, but those horses had raced in Particia Thompson’s colours, pink with purple crossbelts. Famously, David Thompson bought Party Politics for his wife as a birthday present the day before he won the 1992 Grand National.

There were others, including La Touche Cup winner Roc De Prince and Scottish National winner Baronet, but they raced in Mrs Thompson’s colours. This was going to be different; this would be in the colours of Cheveley Park Stud.

Envoi Allen was bought for Cheveley Park by Tom Malone at the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Sale in February 2018, and the other horses followed. Malone Road and Ferny Hollow and Ballyadam and Sir Gerhard and A Plus Tard and Qulixios and Allaho.

Winner of his only point-to-point for Colin Bowe, Envoi Allen ran for the first time under rules for Gordon Elliott in a bumper at Fairyhouse at the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle meeting, which he won.

He won his next three bumpers too, his season culminating with victory in the Champion Bumper at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival. He was ridden to all four bumper wins by Jamie Codd.

There is a symmetry to his racing record. He raced four times too as a novice hurdler, and he won four times, three times at Grade 1 level, ridden to all four victories by Davy Russell, and his season culminating again at the Cheltenham Festival, in 2020, in victory in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle.

“That was a brilliant day,” says Richard. “I remember watching the race, on the run down the hill, I thought that he was a fair way back. But Davy obviously knew what he had and he delivered him at the right time.”

There have been downs as well. There was the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, the Marsh Novices’ Chase as it was then, all going well until the fourth fence, the second fence in the home straight first time, when he clipped the top of the obstacle and came down.

“That was tough all right,” recalls Richard. “It’s always a shock when you end up on the floor. It was just one of those things though. That’s racing.”

PEAK PERFORMANCE

Just over an hour later, he watched as Allaho won the Ryanair Chase, Rachael Blackmore in the Cheveley Park Stud silks. That’s racing too. And two years after that, Envoi Allen won the same race.

“That was another great day obviously,” says Richard. “When he won the Ryanair Chase. I suppose that we weren’t really expecting it. Allaho had won the previous two runnings of the Ryanair, so it was brilliant that Envoi was able to win it in 2023.”

That’s three years ago now, but according to Racing Post Ratings, the quality of the performance that Envoi Allen put up in winning the Champion Chase at Down Royal in 2024 was up there with his Ryanair Chase win, and his win at Down Royal earlier this season was not far below that.

“He was so impressive at Down Royal in November,” says Richard. “Henry and I spoke afterwards, and we decided that he would have one final run, and that that would be in the Gold Cup. He has finished first, second and third in the Ryanair Chase, but he shapes like he needs further these days, so we thought it right to give him his shot at the Gold Cup.”

When Envoi Allen lines up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday, he will be lining up in a National Hunt horse race for the final time, regardless of how he fares. That will bring the curtain down on the career of a remarkable National Hunt racehorse.

Seventeen wins, over distances from two miles to three miles, on heavy ground and soft ground and yielding ground and good to yielding ground, at right-handed tracks and left-handed tracks, up and down hills and on the level. And 10 of those wins at Grade 1 level.

“The Gold Cup is a fantastic race,” says Richard. “It will be great to be a part of it. And he goes there in great form. He deserves his shot at it.”

And regardless of how he fares, you that the Cheltenham crowd will give him the reception that he deserves.