Envoi Allen registered a record third win in the BetVictor Champion Chase at Down Royal.
The 11-year-old moved ahead of fellow dual winners Beef Or Salmon, Kauto Star and Road To Respect as he found generously for pressure to repel all challengers in the Grade One highlight.
Trained by Henry de Bromhead and ridden by Darragh O'Keeffe, Envoi Allen was sent off an 11-4 chance with Found A Fifty the 2-1 favourite in what appeared to be a tight contest.
Galway Plate winner Western Fold set out to make all and was joined by Affordale Fury before Envoi Allen entered the argument to just edge in front at the third-last obstacle, before really starting to assert his authority after the penultimate fence.
Envoi Allen was well in control jumping the last and he kept galloping to see off Affordale Fury by three and three-quarter lengths, adding to his 2022 and 2024 wins in this race, as well as making it a 10th Grade One victory of his career.
De Bromhead said: "What a horse, incredible. Amazing, what else can you say?
"Super ride from Darragh and fair play to everyone at home – Davy Roche and everyone involved – they had him absolutely spot on for today.
"Aren't we so lucky to have him?
"He has just been an incredible horse throughout his career and he just keeps coming back."
Envoi Allen has won six of his seven starts at Down Royal, with his only defeat coming when beaten just a neck by Gerri Colombe in this race two years ago, and he also boasts three Cheltenham Festival wins on his CV, with De Bromhead putting him amongst the very best he has handled.
He said: "Absolutely, he is up there with the best of them.
"To come back here every year and to win a Ryanair, everything he has done. He nearly won four (Champion Chases in Down Royal), he was just chinned in one.
"He is probably not as wild as he was (at home), but he is definitely as enthusiastic.
🏆 2022
— Down Royal Racecourse (@Downroyal) November 1, 2025
🏆 2024
🏆 2025
It's a third G1 @BetVictor Champion Chase for Envoi Allen who produces another special performance at Down Royal! @HenrydeBromhead pic.twitter.com/PP50sF3WMP
"He certainly has a laugh with some of his riders at home which is always good.
"It is brilliant for (owners) Cheveley Park, delighted for them. They are tremendous supporters and of the game."
Paddy Power make Envoi Allen a 33-1 chance for the Ryanair Chase next March but De Bromhead was in no rush to map out future plans straight after the race.
Asked if he could be lightly campaigned up to a spring festival, he added: "I don’t really want to say anything yet, I’m not sure what will happen.
"He’s getting a bit older now, but he didn’t look it there, in fairness to him. Darragh said when he jumped the third-last it was like he had just come into the race, unreal.
"That is probably the most impressive he has won it in the last while. He is class."
Firefox justified odds-on favouritism as his win in the Kildress Plumbing Chase highlighted a treble for Gordon Elliott at Down Royal.
The trainer sent out four winners at the track on Friday and Firefox's four-and-half-length strike in the Grade Two contest was the pick of another fruitful afternoon.
Placed at the highest level on more than one occasion during his novice season, Firefox got his campaign off to a perfect start in the hands of Jack Kennedy, with the 8-11 favourite outbattling Gorgeous Tom.
Elliott said: "In fairness, he had been competing at the top end the whole time but (that was) a good performance.
"I thought Jack gave him a very, very good ride and just landed him there at the right time. Nice to win.
"He’s a good horse, but the problem is you are always taking on those really good horses the whole time."
Elliott was also on the mark with Mange Tout (8-15 favourite) in the opening Lisburn And Castlereagh City Council 3-Y-O Hurdle, making all on her stable debut for a a four-length victory.
While his new French recruit was successful for Kennedy, the trainer felt he may have made a miscalculation in not running his filly in a hood.
He said: "It was a good performance. I left the hood off her because she was so laid-back at home and I thought it was the right thing to do. She wore a hood in France. I’d say I should have left it on her.
"Jack said she ran away with him the whole way. It was a good performance to win considering what she did.
"She showed a bit of class the way she jumps. I think she is nice."
Ballyfad (10-11 favourite) completed the handler’s hat-trick in the Eventsec (Pro/Am) INH Flat Race and Elliott added: "Seven winners is great and we were very unlucky not to have eight – hit the crossbar with a good few. You can’t complain."
Elliott’s runners in both divisions of the Tayto Group Maiden Hurdle suffered reverses, with a bad mistake at the penultimate flight costing 1-5 favourite Kalypso’chance dearly in the first split while 6-5 market leader Road Exile could finish only third in the second contest.
Stuart Crawford’s 16-1 Jony R emerged a nine-length winner in the first division, with the trainer now likely to look to Britain for another novices’ hurdle opportunity.
He said: "I’ll probably end up going across the water for a novice under a penalty rather than trying to step up in grade over here. You are going to have to go into a Listed straight away (in Ireland).
"He’s probably strong enough and mature enough to take it now."
Noel Meade could be thinking in Grade Two terms for Blake (85-40), who was a ready four-and-three-quarter-length scorer in the second division.
He said: "I suppose the Royal Bond is a possible for him or something like that. I don’t know, we will see. I just think he is a leggy horse and I don’t think he needs to get too much racing – let him develop.
"He could be decent."
Lieber Nicc (7-2 favourite) was a comfortable winner of the Ampion Testing Handicap Hurdle for Henry de Bromhead and Darragh O’Keeffe, while Battle Of Mirbat (11-1) took the Racing TV Handicap Chase.
