The 2014 Punchestown Festival

Diamond Geezer

Diamond Geezer

Gone But Not Forgotten
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From ATR

Nicky Henderson has firmed up some of his options for Punchestown but Bobs Worth is highly unlikely to be among his team.

The Seven Barrows handler expects to take about 10 of his string over for the Festival but it will be Long Run, a faller in the Grand National, and not the 2013 Gold Cup winner who will be his representative in the Bibby Financial Services Ireland Punchestown Gold Cup.

Impressive Aintree winner Beat That is also set to travel.

"Long Run will go and Bobs Worth, in all probability, won't, he's going to have a break," said Henderson.

"I think Beat That will go for the three-mile novice (Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle) and Kentucky Hyden and Royal Irish Hussar will go for the juvenile race (AES Champion Four Year Old Hurdle).

"There's a nice race for Ericht and we'll probably take about 10 in all."
 
Looking forward to the festival now, would love to see a clash of the mares in the stayers hurdle but won't happen.

Could be the best juvenile hurdle at the festival in a while also looking at what Hendo is bringing over and what's already here in Ireland


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has mullins mentioned if arvika goes for the 2 miler? looks almost unbeatable going right handed

looking forward to seeing vautour, faugheen & don poli again.

hope the fly makes it a nice round 20 grade 1's. annie power will be long long odds on to win the mares. quevega will probably win the 3 miler again.
 
There's a little too much filler for my liking, but Punchestown is without question one of my favourite meetings of the year.

With the increasing raids by some of the best of the British-trained horses, it - combined with Cheltenham - give a real 'home-and-away' flavour to the top-end races, and it's developed into a really excellent meeting to close-out the season.

The only problem is that its conclusion brings out the fu*cking Morlocks. :mad:

Getting back to Punchestown, I note some gormless muppet is hoovering-up all the Evs+ on Betfair, about Hurricane Fly for the (old) Rabobank. Will these people never learn?

:whistle:
 
Frankel said:
Potential for CF and Djakadam to clash. Licking my lips at that one.
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CF entered up with ballycasey and felix in the powers this weekend. Id imagine he would keep CF for punchestown but ya never know


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BigTea said:
CF entered up with ballycasey and felix in the powers this weekend. Id imagine he would keep CF for punchestown but ya never know


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Mullins
"Champagne Fever ran his heart out in Cheltenham only to go down by a head on the line. He has emerged from the Arkle in good shape and he is in all the novice races at Punchestown," said Mullins.

"It is possible he might run in one of the longer races so the Growise Champion Novice Chase is looking a likely target at this stage. We'll probably have a good crew in that race and it's possible that Djakadam, who like Champagne Fever is also owned by the Riccis, will take him on."
 
Jezki's connections aren't mugs, Euro, and I can't see them allowing a steady pace. They learned their lesson from the Irish Champion and set a more realistic gait in the big one. It's also worth noting that - several times between the 2 races - it was mooted that Jezki would make his own pace, if felt necessary.
 
I'm tempted to back Balder Succes in the Champion Chase. Doesn't handle Cheltenham but otherwise if he jumps he wins and his jumping has improved significantly.
 
EC1 said:
if he does..look no further for the winner
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UDS is a soft-ground flat-foot in comparison with some of the entries, and will get murdered on spring-ground against this class of field.

Mullins won't run him anyway - the ground will be all against him, and he has a much better chance in the Prix La Barka back at Auteuil, which is worth a shedload of coin.
 
Plus running UDS would be to Jezki's advantage, and probably against The Fly's.
 
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Grasshopper said:
UDS is a soft-ground flat-foot in comparison with some of the entries, and will get murdered on spring-ground against this class of field.

Mullins won't run him anyway - the ground will be all against him, and he has a much better chance in the Prix La Barka back at Auteuil, which is worth a shedload of coin.
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i completely disagree that he's a soft ground horse..i'd be checking out his sire's record with fast ground offspring..its twice the strike rate compared to slow ground...so he will more than likely be better on decent ground
 
reet hard said:
Plus running UDS would be to Jezki's advantage, and probably against The Fly's.
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not if he sets his own fractions..which is the likely pace scenario...Jezki has never been a front runner so is highly unlikely to take UDS on

if they don't run UDS then they will be missing a massive opportunity for teh horse

the race is tailor made for him
 
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