Horse Talk with Simon Jackson:

Top horse racing tips and the latest news.

ENVOI Allen’s price has been slashed for the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day after an impressive win in Ireland on Saturday.

The eight-year-old looked mighty impressive when beating the classy Kemboy by one- and three-quarter lengths in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal, near Belfast, on Saturday.

Envoi Allen won his first 11 races under rules, the victories including back-to-back victories at the Cheltenham Festival, winning the Weatherbys Champion Bumper in 2019 and Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle the next year.

He failed to secure a successive hat-trick of Festival victories when falling in the Marsh Novices’ Chase in 2021 and appeared to relish the step up to three miles at Down Royal where he claimed the lead at the last fence and stayed on well to win impressively under Rachael Blackmore.

Henry de Bromhead’s charge was cut to 14-1 from 25-1 immediately after that race and is now best priced at 12-1 (Bet 365), and as short as 7-1, for Kempton Park’s feature race of the year.

“We were delighted with Envoi on Saturday and he seems to have come out of the race in great order,” de Bromhead told the Racing Post.

“I was running him over two miles last season but he certainly hit the line very well over three miles on Saturday. He saw out every yard of it. The plan is to go to the King George with him now so we’ll look forward to that with him.”

Read ‘Horse Talk with Simon Jackson’ for top horse racing tips and the latest news.