WE still don’t know how good Honeysuckle is, and we don’t know how good Envoi Allen can be. We don’t know where the ceilings to their respective abilities lie. You often don’t find out how good a horse is until he or she has been beaten, and that is something that hasn’t happened with either of these yet.

They both had their most difficult assignments at Fairyhouse on Sunday, and they both put up career-bests in winning impressively. Honeysuckle was tackling a Grade 1 contest in open competition for the first time, and the Henry de Bromhead-trained mare won doing handsprings under Rachael Blackmore.

Connections said afterwards that she was 95% certain to target the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham now, but events may conspire against that apparent near-certainty. She is probably going to skip Christmas now, she is reportedly going to be given a short break, and have one run before Cheltenham. The obvious options for that run are the Red Mills Hurdle at Gowran Park and the BHP Insurance Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Which of those assignments she takes up will provide an indication of connections’ thoughts. If she goes for the Red Mills Hurdle, we may learn nothing new about her and it may be then that she will head on for the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham. But if she goes for the Irish Champion Hurdle, it may be that she would have to put up another career-best performance to win it. And if she did happen to win it, it would be very difficult for connections to eschew the Champion Hurdle, a race for which, as the Irish Champion Hurdle winner, she would be sure to be high in the betting.

Underlying all of this, of course, is that it would be a big ask, to win an Irish Champion Hurdle, dropping back down to two miles and racing left-handed under Rules for the first time. But she would be fully deserving of her place in the race, that’s for sure. And, all going well, she would always have the option of targeting the Mares’ Hurdle next season, if she did happen to come up short in the Champion Hurdle.

That is not the case with Envoi Allen. If Gordon Elliott and Cheveley Park Stud happened to go the Champion Hurdle route with him this season, he wouldn’t have the option of running in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle or the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle next year.

Like Honeysuckle, he is unbeaten in a point-to-point and six runs under Rules. He was good at his hurdles on Sunday, and he showed a turn of foot to come away from his highly talented stable companion Abacadabras. Gordon Elliott spoke beforehand and afterwards about the fact that he could step up in trip, and he raced last year in bumpers as if he could go beyond the minimum trip no problem. He is seriously capable over two miles and, if he is better over further, he could be a monster.

YOU can be sure that Simon Rowlands has a more detailed and more forensic examination of the Fairyhouse Sunday times elsewhere in these pages, but there were three two-mile hurdle races on the day so, notwithstanding the fact that one flight of hurdles was omitted in the handicap, some broad-brush comparisons were possible, armed with a video and a stopwatch.

Broad-brush conclusions? It looks like the Royal Bond Hurdle was a high-class race, and that Envoi Allen is fast. Gordon Elliott’s horse got from the landing side of the final flight to the winning line in a time that was around a second faster than the time that it took the juvenile hurdlers to cover the same ground, and that was despite the fact that he got from the landing side of the first flight to the landing side of the final flight in a time that was around three seconds faster.

They went fast early on in the handicap hurdle, they got from the first flight to the third last flight in a time that was over three seconds faster than the time that it took the novices to get there. But Envoi Allen made up over five seconds on the handicappers from there to the winning line, including over a second on the run-in.

ELEGANT Escape ran a big race to finish third in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury on Saturday.

It was a race in which the pace held up well. Winner De Rasher Counter was never far off the pace, and runner-up The Conditional got into a lovely racing rhythm early on, just behind the leaders and along the inside with plenty of racing and jumping room.

By contrast, Elegant Escape was wide and well back from early, and he was a bit sticky over a couple of his early fences. Still only 13th or 14th as they levelled up for home, and just seventh jumping the second last fence, he stayed on all the way to the line to take third place, just two lengths behind the winner.

He is high in the handicap of course, and it doesn’t help that he got another 4lbs for Saturday’s run, but Saturday’s race was not a sufficient stamina test for him, three and a quarter miles at Newbury on good to soft ground. He will get a greater test in the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow, three more furlongs and surely softer ground.

As a bonus, he will get to compete off his pre-Newbury mark of 160 at Chepstow, so he will be 4lbs well-in, and, winner of last year’s race off a mark of 151, his record at Chepstow reads 121. He should be the first horse on your Welsh National list.