SETTING THE SCENE AT PUNCHESTOWN: Cheltenham revenge. Championships claimed and reclaimed. A renewed battle between Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott. That’s the feast in store at Punchestown, starting tomorrow and culminating in the BETDAQ Champion Hurdle. Daqman sets the scene.
NICHOLLS CONTENT TO SCORE SINGLE: Daqman dares try a treble of sprint races on the Flat today, one at each of Pontefract, Navan and Windsor. But, for the nap, he relies on the jumps-title surge from trainer Paul Nicholls, who has sent just one horse to Warwick.
POWER TO THE BETDAQ CHAMPION
What’s in a name? Well, there’s still a tingle down the spine when we think of a great horse past or present, from Arkle to Frankel.
One of those great names, Annie Power, could have her final race in the BETDAQ Champion Hurdle at Punchestown on Friday.
She has other alternatives at the big Irish festival which starts tomorrow, but going out with a champion’s crown would confirm her status as a legend in her own lifetime.
Why ‘final race’? The answer is that super-racemare Annie is in foal to Camelot, the dual English and Irish Derby winner of 2012, so the Punchestown meeting may see her finale.
This mating will mingle the blueblood of a Derby winner with the jumping power of Annie’s dam’s line, which descends from Old Vic who fathered Gold Cup and Grand National winners in Kicking King and Don’t Push it.
The 2016 Champion Hurdle winner at Cheltenham, she has already won the Mares’ Champion Hurdle twice at this Punchestown meeting.
What a pity the name One For Arthur has already gone (to a Grand National winner no less), or would that have been too oblique for a colt by Camelot out of Annie Power?
TUESDAY The opening day is Champion Chase day, and seven of the last eight winners had run in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham.
So look out for Fox Norton (second), Sir Valentino (third) and God’s Own (fifth), who took this last year after running fourth to Sprinter Sacre at the festival.
Willie Mullins has a twofold Irish defence with Un De Sceaux, bidding for a four-timer after his Ryanair at Cheltenham, and Ballycasey who, despite winning at Gowran Park and Fairyhouse this year, has been dropped 4lb.
WEDNESDAY This is Punchestown Gold Cup day. And, though Sizing John, the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, will be favourite, the talking point will be the reappearance of the 2013 Cheltenham hero, Coneygree, if they can get him to Punchestown in one piece, so many niggling problems having kept him away from the racecourse for far too long now.
THURSDAY Having backed two fine horses in the Grand National that stepped up their game from banks racing – Silver Birch and Cause Of Causes – I am now a big fan of the cross-country.
Thursday’s La Touche has Enda Bolger, who has won it five times since 2006, fielding Cantlow and Auvergnat, third and fourth to Cause Of Causes in the Cheltenham Festival cross-country last month.
FRIDAY Here’s the big one, the BETDAQ Champion Hurdle. Whether or not Annie Power runs, it’s sure to be a great race, and I shall do an ABC guide of stats and facts, revealing the horse behind the form, on every runner.
WASHINGTON READY FOR THIS
3.05 Pontefract Showers on a firm surface. That’s a recipe for a turn-up, if ever I saw one, particularly in a sprint. The form of the stables is not helpful.
Paul Midgley saddles the only runners to have won on the course (Line Of Reason and Another Wise Kid) but has a poor set of current figures (1-57 this year), though his modest 12% strike rate at Pontefract includes big-priced winners, giving him a 22-point profit.
Edward Lewis is the hidden horse. He might be on a hat-trick here but was twice hampered in races at Haydock before scoring at Beverley just five days ago.
That was his first run for David O’Meara since moving from John Gosden and being gelded.
5.25 Navan That grand old man, Maarek, won this four years ago when the race was held at Naas. It was the start of a run of four winning favourites in a row.
The forecast jolly for today was Washington DC, within an ace of winning the Abbaye last October, and not disgraced in the Group-1 Al Quoz sprint in Dubai last month.
He must have a fast pace at this trip so it will be interesting to see how stablemate Easton Angel perfoms on her first run for Aidan O’Brien since leaving Michael Dods.
Primo Uomo is a horse in form but has to step up from 96-high handicaps and a much bigger threat may be Ardhoomey who, if the showers were anything much this morning, would have the same conditions as when he beat Washington DC in a fierce head-to-head at The Curragh in September.
However, that was a fine performance by Washington DC as a three-year-old in receipt of only a pound. He should have improved over the winter, and his recent run will have set him up for this.
6.15 Windsor I’m sticking with the four-year-olds to land me a sprint hat-trick. No, I can’t fancy Cold Snap, drawn 11 of 12 and with William Jarvis out of form.
I shall risk a pound at 28.0 Kyllukey from last year’s winning yard. A Spring horse, well drawn, and likely to show renewed interest on his first run for a new yard (moved from Charlie Hills).
THE NAP Despite all we were told in the Press, trainer Paul Nicholls is going all out to overhaul Nicky Henderson for the title – as 17 winners in the last fortnight bear witness – and Contre Tous (3.25) has been sent on a solo mission to Warwick, where his yard has a 30% strike rate in chases.
DAQMAN’S BETS (to win 20 points each)
BET 8pts win EDWARD LEWIS (3.05 Pontefract)
BANKER: BET 20pts win (nap) CONTRE TOUS (3.25 Warwick)
BET 6pts win WASHINGTON DC (5.25 Navan)
BET 1pt win and place KYLLUKEY (6.15 Windsor)
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