Punchestown 2011

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Dates are confirmed for May 3 to Saturday, May 7. What do we make of this? I would think it will put alot of UK horses off from coming over as it will be so late.

Easter being so late this year has made the meeting have to be so late. Mad to think the Guineas will be run before the Punchestown Festival - I do not like.
 
Guineas before Punchestown! Its just all wrong. They need to drop the link with Easter.
 
Might see plenty of Cheltenham winners over with the big gap in-between the festivals. Possibly too late in May but i'd like to think a few will come over
 
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Seems a good idea - 3 weeks between Aintree and Punchestown and 2 weeks between Cheltenham and Aintree should encourage more trainers on both sides of the Irish sea to target all three festivals with their top horses :)
 
If you have a classy good ground horse there must be a temptation not to run before the new year.
 
Or 5 weeks from Cheltenham to Punchestown. Guranteed to maximise the number of Irish cheltenham runners at punchestown, and in good nick too. Guineas makes no diff to me so looking forward to racing in the very decent May weather.
 
Cantoris said:
Guranteed to maximise the number of Irish cheltenham runners at punchestown, and in good nick too.
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Really? I do not think it will make a difference to the number of Irish Cheltenham horses that go over - the vast majority of them turn up every year regardless of the timing.

I would think alot of trainers, particularly UK trainers might not take the risk of keeping a horse in training for so long only for it to come up very fast in May.
 
Galileo said:
Really? I do not think it will make a difference to the number of Irish Cheltenham horses that go over - the vast majority of them turn up every year regardless of the timing.
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Big Zeb to start with. Will give him two more weeks. There will be others who underperformed given the closeness to cheltenham. Those that show up should be in better shape to show their abilities although may blame the ground. The english horses will come anyway just maybe a different mix.
 
Horses who under perform will do so because it will be the end of a long hard season - two weeks will make little enough difference. If your horse is over the top not much can be done about that. Take your point about Big Zeb but like I said the vast majority turn up provided they are uninjured.
 
Just looking back over the last two years, bar Big Zeb and Weapons Amnesty (does not go righthanded does he?) I can see none of the Irish Cheltenham winners that have not turned up at Punchestown and many of the placed horses are there as well. So I do not see this as likely to increase the Irish star turn out as they already do. The Irish trainers appear to be positive but it will be interesting to see how the Brits hold out.

Note the ground was Good To Firm by the end of the meeting last time the Festival was run at this time of year.
 
Punchestown is too late every year. Cheltenham and Aintree should be pushed forward by a week or two. Most good horses are doing absolutely nothing in the 3 weeks before Cheltenham and I can't see the problem with bringing it forward.
 
Hamm said:
Cheltenham and Aintree should be pushed forward by a week or two.
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Given the furore moving the second last fence at Cheltenham has caused amongst the National Hunt brigade, moving the whole thing would surely be tantamount to declaring armageddon! :p
 
Galileo said:
Horses who under perform will do so because it will be the end of a long hard season - two weeks will make little enough difference. If your horse is over the top not much can be done about that. Take your point about Big Zeb but like I said the vast majority turn up provided they are uninjured.
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I'd have to disagree with you there. It is my experience that those extra two weeks would be critical for a lot of runners who are not over the top but cannot recover quickly enough from Chellers. Plenty run anyway at Punchestown and underperform. Trainers see it as the horses last race of the season so worth a go. Certainly we did. Big Zeb didn't run last year because it simply came too close to Cheltenham, not because he was over the top. Plenty of horses are in a similar position. The extra two weeks is absolutely critical. when they come back from Chellers they would have a quiet week or two so if only three weeks to Punchestown it gives you no time. The extra two weeks gives you a fighting chance of getting them there is very decent nick. I think it will improve the quality as fewer horses will underperform.
 
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Galileo said:
Just looking back over the last two years, bar Big Zeb and Weapons Amnesty (does not go righthanded does he?) I can see none of the Irish Cheltenham winners that have not turned up at Punchestown and many of the placed horses are there as well. So I do not see this as likely to increase the Irish star turn out as they already do. The Irish trainers appear to be positive but it will be interesting to see how the Brits hold out.

Note the ground was Good To Firm by the end of the meeting last time the Festival was run at this time of year.
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As I mentioned above, most Irish trainers will run at Punchestown even if they feel their horse is not spt on because of the prizemoney, last race of season and they can't do too much harm on decent ground compared to slogging their guts out on heavy ground when over the top. The question if whether it will reduce the number of underachievers i.e. remove the "Cheltenham effect". I'm not surprised the Irish trainers like it.
 
Hamm said:
Punchestown is too late every year. Cheltenham and Aintree should be pushed forward by a week or two. Most good horses are doing absolutely nothing in the 3 weeks before Cheltenham and I can't see the problem with bringing it forward.
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Cheltenham always used to be the second Tuesday of March - no matter how early. I can recall it falling on 9th March before now.

These days it seems to be whichever week St Patrick's Day falls in, so it has begun to fall a week later. I suppose it is so that our Irish visitors can use their national holiday as part of their week off work (also lets the local pubs and clubs benefit from the celebrations), but it can muck up the schedule for the Aintree-bound horses.

Edward, however, has said that Cheltenham and Aintree had recently agreed to ensure 3 weeks between their major meetings.
 
redhead said:
Cheltenham always used to be the second Tuesday of March - no matter how early. I can recall it falling on 9th March before now.

These days it seems to be whichever week St Patrick's Day falls in, so it has begun to fall a week later. I suppose it is so that our Irish visitors can use their national holiday as part of their week off work (also lets the local pubs and clubs benefit from the celebrations), but it can muck up the schedule for the Aintree-bound horses.

Edward, however, has said that Cheltenham and Aintree had recently agreed to ensure 3 weeks between their major meetings.
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Charter Party won the Gold Cup on St Patricks Day and possibly Bregawn.
 
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