Three Performances From The Weekend

On a weekend where Gordon Elliott, Cheveley Park Stud and Jack Kennedy all had a superb time of things the best thing to come out of the action In Northern Ireland was the exceptional return to the track by Envoi Allen.

Envoi Allen is unbeaten in all 10 of his contests to date after scoring emphatically on his chase debut, which include a point to point, four bumper wins including the Grade One Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham festival and when moving switch to hurdles he has gone one to win on four occasions.

The racing world watched in apprehension as the six year old made his debut on Friday at Down Royal over fences and after putting up a foot perfect effort, many think he can go through the season unbeaten once more.

Saturday brought the best of the racing and the feature event in England was the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby and Cyrname for Paul Nicholls bounced back to his best with an effortless display of jumping.

Many thought after his fall at the back end of last season that the highest rated chaser may have lost his confidence, but that was not the case.

Cyrname silenced his doubters on Saturday and proved why he has been given such a high mark, when jumping a classy filed into submission.

His critics also thought that the star was only proven round round handed tracks such as Ascot, but again he put those assumptions to bed when showing just as much skill going left handed.

Cyrname is back to his best and it looks and can have another sparkling season.

The first Grade One of the season came at Down Royal and with a field full of stars, Gordon Elliott came out on top with his improving chaser The Storyteller getting up in the final furlong.

The market was dominated by Delta Work, who for the second year in a row ran no sort of race in the event, but luckily for Elliott his stablemate got to job done.

Henry De Bromhead fielded Chris's Dream who went off favourite after some market support and jumping the last he looked the clear winner.

However, after travelling well throughout the race, he rallied after the last to just get his head up on the line to land his second Grade One over fences.