The highly talented Malone Road is being eyed at some huge prices in the up coming jumps season after he got off the mark over hurdles at the first time of asking to extend his unbeaten run to four races.
Bought for £325,000 by Cheveley Park Stud after landing an Irish point-to-point in the spring of 2018, the gelding was given to Gordon Elliott and raced twice in bumpers and won both of them in very taking style.
Following the same path as Envoi Allen he was compared to the dual Cheltenham festival winner having looked as good and if not better than him in his two events in the national hunt flat races.
He made his debut at Down Royal and took the event by 7 1/2 lengths and off the back of that went to Punchestown in November 2018 and saw off the smart Mt Leinster for Willie Mullins by 8 1/2 lengths.
Welcome back, Malone Road 👍 @KilbegganRaces
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Since then he had not been seen on a racecourse suffering with injury problems for the last two seasons, but made his long awaited return at Kilbeggan on Friday, picking up from where he left off but this time on hurdles debut.
Chris Richardson, managing director of Cheveley Park Stud, confirmed Malone Road’s well-being after his Kilbeggan comeback.
(Credit ATR) He said: “I spoke to Gordon the following day, and he came out of the race fine thankfully.
“Obviously soft ground is important to him – and having been off for a long time, he was quite ring rusty.
“Hopefully we can creep along – where we go next I couldn’t say, but it’s nice to see him back.
“That’s the most important thing, that he’s back and sound after the race.”