Ruby Walsh feels Allaho has to find his "old spark" if he's to win a third Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham in March.
A brilliant winner of the 2021 and 2022 renewals, Willie Mullins' charge missed last year's race - and a large chunk of the season - after meeting with a setback.
He made a winning return from in the Clonmel Oil Chase in the autumn but was well-held in third behind Hewick in the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton last time.
Walsh, speaking on Paddy Power Media’s ‘From The Horse’s Mouth’ podcast ‘Cheltenham Countdown’, feels the X Factor has been missing from the ten-year-old this time around.
"After a year out he was workmanlike at Clonmel, he had to improve to win a King George and I don’t think he improved enough. I suppose when I watched the King George, they didn’t go quick for the first circuit yet Allaho looked like he was going as quick as he wanted to be going and to me that wasn’t the Allaho that won the 2021 or 2022 Ryanair where he blew horses away in the first mile," he said.
"He wouldn’t have held them behind Frodon in those two Ryanairs whereas Paul Townend had no problem putting him where he was in the King George. He didn’t look like he wanted to be going any faster and that to me was a sign he’ll have to have improve a good bit from the King George and find that spark.
"Allaho wins races in the first mile rather than in the last mile of a race and he wasn’t able to do it in the King George and he’ll have to be able to do that if he’s going to win this (the Ryanair). I don’t think it was tactics – I think if Allaho was on song, the jockey doesn’t ride Allaho, Allaho’s literally telling the jockey what he’s doing.
"That to me was the sign of Allaho that he wasn’t keen enough, he wasn’t going, he didn’t want to go any faster and he didn’t look like he could go any faster. He didn’t impress me in the King George. He’s been 100 percent since – all systems go but I do think he has to find that spark if he’s going to win this race."
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