Punchestown selections Tuesday 26th April
Crowds return to the Punchestown Festival for the first time since 2019 and the first of five days looks set for another Willie Mullins benefit as in both Grade 1’s tomorrow he saddles two horses who will be overwhelming favourites over their rivals. However it may not necessarily be with the most favoured runner that he wins those contests. I have selections from three races on the evening.
Punchestown 3.40: Party Central
The usual running order for the opening day is shuffled this afternoon and we start with a mares hurdle in which PARTY CENTRAL is favoured to leave her Cheltenham form behind.
Gordon Elliott’s charge is a real speed horse who won a listed hurdle here in the autumn despite pulling far too hard, only just having enough close home having looked a certain winner at the last. She then landed a valuable handicap at Leopardstown having cruised through the contest on decent going. However she was somewhat bogged down in the soft on an undulating track at Cheltenham.
Back on a flatter course and drier ground I expect her to be back at her best and there should be a big enough field for Davy Russell to get some cover and conserve her energy for the latter end of the contest.
Punchestown 4.50: Glan, Hearts are Trumps, Hurricane Cliff
Plenty who lined up for a similar race to this at Fairyhouse ten days ago are back in action here, including the winner that day in GLAN. On this similar course configuration, similar big field and similar good ground I see no reason why the mare should not take all the beating once more.
She has to contend with a 7lb rise, but this strong traveller made the most of the big field to secure plenty of cover and stay settled during the Fairyhouse contest and I expect Mark Walsh to produce similar tactics today. She was a good second to Gua Du Large in the autumn at Fairyhouse, but she looks a better, stronger horse now.
HEARTS ARE TRUMPS won that same Fairyhouse contest in 2021 from a mark of 131 and finished a perfectly respectable seventh in the same race last week having enjoyed a winter break of five months prior to that.
Back down to 129 now he must be well handicapped and will surely have come on for that race at Fairyhouse where he was not given an unduly hard time. He has plenty of good form in valuable, big field handicaps over the past few seasons, including a second in the Galway Hurdle and he should be no back number yet at the age of nine.
At the other end of the experience scale, HURRICANE CLIFF looks overpriced. He had some decent form in maidens last season, ultimately winning at Naas over Captain Kangaroo. He had not really kicked on from there, but did run better on his last start at Leopardstown over Christmas when fifth in a big field at a time when the de Bromhead horses were running below par.
This Canford Cliffs gelding should not want for pace and another potential factor in his favour is his tendency to go best fresh. His form figures after at least a fifty day break read 21255 and a rating of 126 looks reasonable.
Punchestown 5.25: Chacun Pour Soi
The much touted Champion Chase at Cheltenham won by Energumene fell apart somewhat, not least because of the unseat of Patrick Mullins off CHACUN POUR SOI. However Chacun avoided having a hard race there on testing ground as a result and he will definitely prefer the good going to his stablemate.
It is also true that by far his best form has come in Ireland, notably here, winning at the last two Festivals including an easy win over Allaho in this last season. The sharper nature of this track plays to his strengths and I am hopeful that Mullins will send him to the front where he could enjoy an easy lead and get into a decent rhythm.
Recommended bets:
1pt win – Party Central – 3.40 Punchestown – 11/4 general
1pt each-way – Glan – 4.50 Punchestown – 13/2 BetVictor, Coral (1/5 odds 1st 5)
0.5pts each-way – Hearts are Trumps – 4.50 Punchestown – 16/1 general (most bookies 1/5 odds 1st 5)
0.5pts each-way – Hurricane Cliff – 4.50 Punchestown – 33/1 Paddy Power, BetVictor (1/5 odds 1st 5)
1pt win – Chacun Pour Soi – 5.25 Punchestown – 13/8 general
