Peerless Punchesground

It’s as you were at Punchestown, don’t fret, three Grade 1 races and Willie Mullins wins all three.  It’s quite incredible, he said that there was no way he would repeat last year’s haul of 12, including four Grade 1s, one in every three races that was run at the Punchestown Festival last year was won by a horse that was trained by Willie Mullins, but he’s on track, in spite of those assurances.  Yesterday, it was three out of seven, all three Grade 1s, that’s well ahead of last year’s pace after a day.   And if that wasn’t enough, Flat Out chased Blackstairmountain home in the novices’ hurdle, while The Midnight Club finished third behind Kempes in the novices’ chase.  They should just give him the keys on Saturday evening.

A couple of other things about yesterday at Punchestown: the car parks were full but the enclosures didn’t seem to be.  Unusually for Punchestown Day 1, there was plenty of room to move around.  I’m not sure why that was.  Perhaps, because there were fewer corporates than in the past, there was more space for ordinary punters that would normally be taken up by the wine-swilling prawn-sandwich-eating brigade.  I’m not sure what the mathematics are, but I’d say you could fit 40 or 50 standing punters (lean ones) into the space that a round table for 10 takes up, and you could probably fit a couple of thousand into the space that one of those giant marquees take up.

On top of that, there were fewer people there, 14,177 according to Tamso’s text, down over two thousand on last year.  That’s a drop of over 13% and it’s not good, continuing the seemingly interminable trend in racecourse attendances towards the sea bed.  More worringly, betting in the ring was down from ¢1.8 million last year to just over ¢1.3 million this year.  Tote turnover was up almost ¢200,000.  At least that, and fair play to the Tote for forming an arrangement whereby French people can bet directly into the pools.  Mind you, it is worrying that the amount bet by les punteurs was more than the amount by which turnover was up, which means that the amount bet by the Irish into the Tote pools was also down.  (Sigh.)

The other thing about yesterday was the ground.  It was reasonable to expect good to fast ground, after all the drying we have had (have you hung your laundry on the line recently?), yet the times and the results suggest otherwise.  You can understand where the executive are coming from, their aim is to provide safe ground for National Hunt horses, attract the best.  However, we may be a fair way from good ground, and you have to take that into account if you are betting today.  At the Punchestown Festival last year, the official ground description was soft, and the times complied.  However, this year’s times are not much different to last year’s.  Golden Silver’s time in winning the two-mile Champion Chase was actually 0.3secs slower than the time that Master Minded clocked in winning the same race last year, albeit pushed all the way by Big Zeb.

Kempes’s time in winning the three-mile novices’ chase was only 0.7secs faster than the time that Rare Bob clocked in winning the same race last year.  Some of the other races were a little bit faster, but not by as much as you would expect on good ground.  Also, significantly, yesterday’s Ladies’ Cup, run over the banks course in all its vastness where they don’t tend to water so much, was run in a time that was almost 18 seconds faster than last year’s race.  From a betting perspective, I was duped into leaving Golden Silver out of calculations – he had no chance on good fast ground – but thankfully Kempes got away with it.

Today’s Guinness Gold Cup is a cracker.  It’s great that War Of Attrition is back for his swansong, bowing out in a race that he won as a seven-year-old, returning Cheltenham Gold Cup hero, in 2006.  That’s four years ago now.  Incredible.  Is it too much to expect him to win?  Probably.  However this pans out, though, a lush green pasture at Gigginstown House awaits.

It’s also great that Denman is set to line up, which, in fairness, he wouldn’t be if the ground was not going to be as forgiving as it is likely to be. Also, most of his main market rivals, Cooldone, Joncol, even J’y Vole, all like to get their toe in at least a little, so the aggressive watering policy shouldn’t really bestow a significant advantage or disadvantage on any of them.

I haven’t swayed from J’y Vole.  The reasons for backing her earlier in the week haven’t changed.  She was a top class novice, she beat Big Zeb in the Dr P J Moriarty Chase, she won at this meeting last year, she ran a cracker in the Ryanair Chase in a race that is working out well (the winner Albertas Run followed up at Aintree) and in which she may have finished second but for getting involved in a private duel with Poquelin, and she goes better at right-handed tracks (like Punchestown) than she does at left-handed tracks (like Cheltenham).  The big prices are gone, but the 13/2 at which you can back her this morning may still represent a little bit of value.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com

Categories: Horse racing