PUNCHESTOWN COUNTDOWN: DAQMAN has his eyes on the Punchestown Festival which gets underway on Tuesday. It’s the rematch between Elliott and Mullins – the pair have 12 of the 16 acceptors in Friday’s BETDAQ Champion Hurdle.
TRIPLE JUMPING SUNDAY: Three jumps cards in the UK on Sunday and the ground is drying up quick at Market Rasen, Stratford and Wincanton. In Ireland there’s a good flat card at Navan featuring the Group 3 Vintage Crop Stakes which looks at the mercy of Order Of St George. DAQMAN has bets at all four venues.
BIG-TWO IRISH BATTLE AGAIN
It’s the Gordon and Willie show.. AGAIN! Cheltenham was tough enough for others to join the private party, as two stables’ runners swamped race after race.
But the rematch at Punchestown next week sees the principal actors, Elliott and Mullins, take centre stage and fill the final NH theatre of war with every other main part and bit player as well!
For instance, in the BETDAQ Champion Hurdle next Friday, they have six contenders each, 12 in total of the 16 acceptors.
Mr Elliott is looking for some correction here. Mr Mullins has won it eight times this century; Elliott none.
Willie’s form figures in the race since 2010 are 11112111, in which the ‘2’ for second place is Jessica Harrington’s Jezki turning over the four-time winner, Hurricane Fly.
Jessica could take them both on again with Supasundae, second at Cheltenham, second at Aintree, and dropping back to 2m here.
In fact, Supasundae’s last success was in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown, his shock defeat of odds-on Faugheen, who could also be back next week.
At the very start of Punchestown next week, the Tuesday kick-off, it’s a case of checking out the final runners from the 11 out of 15 acceptors in the Champion Chase (5.30) shared between Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins.
And the deluge continues in the Champion Novice Chase (6.40) with 16 out of 20 Elliott-Mullins acceptors.
On Wednesday, the Coral Punchestown Gold Cup has been won by champions (Sizing John 2017) and by future champions (Don Cossack 2015) of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
This year the Cheltenham fourth and fifth, Road To Respect and Djakadam, take each other on again.
But they could face an unwelcome guest if Minella Rocco joins in, after his eleventh-hour defection from the Liverpool Grand National because of the heavy ground.
GROUND POINTING TO FELICE
2.25 Market Rasen Thistimenextyear was running a big race on his hurdling debut before falling three out at Warwick and then ran a good race last time out at Huntingdon when runner-up to Havana Beat. His trainer Richard Spencer is on a fair enough strike-rate of 5/27 this jumps season but the ground might just have quickened up too much today for Thistimenextyear.
Preference is for the eight-year-old L’inganno Felice who has winning form on good ground on the flat and he ran well on his belated jumping debut at Carlisle earlier in the month when third to Kelpies Myth.
Cloudy Glen was a little disappointing at Wincanton last time out and has no experience of racing on better ground so is quite hard to assess here.
4.10 Stratford At first glance this looks a competitive novice hurdle but on closer inspection it looks a perfect opportunity for the Paul Nicholls trained Secret Investor who has been expensive to follow recently but his overall form puts him in with an excellent chance in this company.
The stable are flying at the moment and Secret Investor is likely to be suited by the drying ground, given that one of his best runs was when second to Way Back Then at Kempton on good ground.
4.15 Navan (Salsabil Stakes) 10 furlong Listed race for fillies with the ground remaining soft at Navan.
Jim Bolger provided a shock 20/1 winner of this last year and runs Sometimesadiamond today who has the benefit of a recent run in the 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown where she finished fourth on heavy ground.
Aidan runs three, including likely favourite Bye Bye Baby who won a Listed race over course, distance and ground in October. She is rated equal to Mary Tudor who could be the value. She is more lightly raced than most of her rivals and showed her class when she was third in a Group 2 on just her second start. She rounded off finishing fourth in a Group 3 and should be seen to better effect over this long trip.
6.00 Wincanton Dashel Drasher made a winning debut here and then was outclassed, but by no means disgraced when 13th in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival. Back at this level he is surely worth considering even under his penalty. It doesn’t look a strong bumper by any means.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 20 points)
BET 10.0pts win (nap) L’INGANNO FELICE (2.25 Market Rasen)
BET 7.4pts win SECRET INVESTOR (4.10 Stratford)
BET 4.5pts win MARY TUDOR (4.15 Navan)
BET 5.8pts win DASHEL DRASHER (6.00 Wincanton)
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