Love is in the air: Love Envoi wins Mares’ Novices Hurdle at The Festival

This year’s Cheltenham Festival has certainly been a good one for RSA Members, and syndicates in general as Love Envoi, for Noel Fehily Racing took the G2 Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle – much to the delight of her syndicate owners

🚀 Love Envoi – what a performance in the @Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle

She remains unbeaten, completing the six-timer with a fine effort under @JohnnyBurke2 for @HarryFryRacing1 for the @ndfehily & @DavidCrosse Syndicate @CheltenhamRaces #TheFestival pic.twitter.com/qEDWDuTVbG

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) March 17, 2022

Costing just £38,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham March Sale – wind the clock forward one year and she’s a Cheltenham Festival winner. Always jumping and travelling well she beat off rivals to win by 1 1/2 lengths under Johnny Burke.

This rounded off an RSA festival double for syndicate-owned mares, Marie’s Rock for Middleham Park Racing won the Mares’ Hurdle on the Tuesday.

Noel Fehily said: “I told Johnny [Burke] not to be afraid to take his time because I knew a lot of them wouldn’t get up the hill and I knew she would – he was just in the perfect position the whole way, it was just poetry to watch. We weren’t committing all week as to whether we’d even be running, but there was a bit of rain forecast yesterday and the heavens opened, so someone was looking down on us. We just bought her because we really liked her at the sales, we thought she was a bit of value and she’d won her bumper. You dream you’d win a couple of races but you don’t think you’re going to win at Cheltenham. I know how hard it is to win at the Cheltenham Festival, so to have got one here is unbelievable.”

Huge congratulations to all connections of Love Envoi from all of us at the RSA and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for this talented mare.