Allen brings flat form to jumps circuit

It doesn’t matter if it’s a race on the flat or one over jumps for Irish jockey John Allen.

Last Saturday Allen scored his first win in a feature race on the flat, guiding Howard Be Thy Name to victory in the Port Adelaide Guineas at Morphettville.

He was then back in action over jumps on Wednesday, winning on Gingerboy in the Jack Dow Memorial Hurdle at Sandown.

Allen is now looking forward to the Warrnambool three-day carnival where last year he picked up the feature race, the Grand Annual Steeplechase, aboard Regina Coeli.

The Irishman rides for leading Victorian trainer Darren Weir who looks like having a strong hand once again at this year’s carnival.

Gingerboy, who was backed from $1.55 to $1.30, was being aimed at the Novice Hurdle on day three of the carnival but is now likely to switch to the feature hurdle, the Galleywood, after his six-length victory on Wednesday.

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Allen said Now And Zen, a winner of four of his five jumps starts, was to be Weir’s Galleywood runner until colic surgery last Friday put him out for the season.

But Allen says the stable has a ready-made replacement in Gingerboy.

“He’s been going well on the flat and he’s been promising to do something like that over the jumps,” Allen said.

Earthbound, winner of the Great Southern Steeplechase, may bypass Warrnambool and instead be kept for the Australian Steeplechase later next month.

But the runner-up, the Gai Waterhouse-trained Valediction, is Warrnambool-bound for the Grand Annual on May 5.

Stable spokesman Roger Elliot said the gelding would be better placed over the longer journey and with less weight over the undulating course.

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