Envoi Allen was the star of the show at Naas last Sunday where he made it a perfect seven wins from seven runs in the Grade 1 Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle.

In front of a big crowd at the recently crowned racecourse of the year, Gordon Elliott’s six-year-old travelled and jumped nicely for Davy Russell, and the pair easily moved past Elixir D’Ainay at the last, maintaining a comfortable advantage on the run-in.

The big question now is whether the Cheveley Park-owned gelding will stick to novice races or take an early step up to open company in what is a particularly weak year for the Champion Hurdle.

Speaking after the race, Elliott said: “I’m going to put him in the Supreme, the Champion Hurdle and the Ballymore Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham. He will probably stick to novice company but we’ll keep our options open.

“I was pleased with what he did today. It was a proper race and a good test run at a good gallop. Our horse did it nicely and you’d have to like how he goes about things. Davy [Russell] said he learned more today than he’s ever done.”

Willie Mullins came off second best in the feature but he recorded a double on the card and looks to have two nice novices on his hands with Cash Back and Asterion Forlonge. The former led from start to finish in what looked a hot novice chase and he could be an Arkle contender at Cheltenham now.

Over in Britain, Robbie Power maintained his terrific strike rate for Colin Tizzard, the pair teaming up to win another Grade 1 with Fiddlerontheroof in the Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown. The Irish bred gelding, initially trained by Shirley Berry in Wexford and then John Joe Walsh in Cork, was much too strong for Meath trainer Gavin Cromwell’s Jeremys Flame in the soft ground conditions. Fiddlerontheroof could clash with Envoi Allen at Cheltenham now.

Elsewhere, final figures are in for the Christmas meetings at Leopardstown and Limerick and the attendances were healthy.

Over 57,000 attended Leopardstown across the four days, while there was 41,000 at Limerick. Both those figures were marginally up on 2018.