The Cheltenham Gold Cup winning jockey and Betway ambassador previews his four rides on Day 2 at the Punchestown Festival.
We move quickly onto Day 2 of the Punchestown Festival, and it is a week where the races come thick and fast so you have to try and enjoy it before it’s all over.
Punchestown’s a great course to ride as a jockey, because if you’re jumping well on the front end, it’s so hard for them to peg you back. It’s all about getting settled and getting into a nice rhythm, particularly on the chase track, because you can get lengths for nothing if you are jumping well.
The race usually starts taking shape from the moment you leave the back straight, but you’re still a good distance from home, so it’s a case of taking your time too and not getting too excited.
It’s a festival and a track we’ve had great success at over the years, and I’ll be hoping that continues this week.
It wasn’t an easy choice between Bunting and Soir De Garde 3/1 in the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel Hurdle (15:40), because there wouldn’t be much between them on ratings, but I just felt Soir De Garde was the one open to a bit more improvement.
After running in all of those big handicaps, Bunting might actually be well-suited to this smaller field, but he’s one of those horses that you just seem to be making an excuse for every day. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if this were the day he finally decided to put it all together, but I’m hoping I’ve made the right choice.
I thought Soir De Garde was running a cracker at Cork before he came down, especially considering how free he was. Admittedly, he’d have only finished third, but the hood is back on here, which I’m hoping will help him relax. If he does settle then he’d have a big chance in this race.
I’ll want to be having my Weetabix on Wednesday morning, because Soir De Garde is pretty free and Doctor Steinberg 4/1 ran away with me at Cheltenham, but I’m looking forward to having another go on him in the novice hurdle (16:15).
I had high hopes for Doctor Steinberg going into Cheltenham, but you can’t race that keenly in a race of that nature and he literally just pulled until he couldn’t pull any more, so we’ll be hoping the hood will be a big help to him. He showed he has a high level of ability when winning at Leopardstown at the Dublin Racing Festival, so he’s clearly capable of winning this if he does relax.
We have a few contenders in there and Espresso Milan is a horse with plenty of ability, too, if he can bounce back from a disappointing effort at Cheltenham. I nailed my colours to Doctor Steinberg’s mast as soon as I saw the entries, though, so there was no way I was ever going to get off him.
I’ve gone for King Alexander 3/1 in the handicap chase (17:25), and although this is another race where Willie has a few interesting runners, his form is just so solid that I didn’t want to leave him behind.
I thought his run at Cheltenham in the Jack Richards was perfectly good, and he just looks to me like he’s starting to put it all together, so he could be off a fair mark. I think the ground will be absolutely fine for him as well, so while it is a competitive handicap, I can see him running a big race.
There’s been plenty of buzz around the clash between Gaelic Warrior 11/10 and Fact To File in the Punchestown Gold Cup (18:05), so much so that people are completely forgetting the fact that last year’s Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin is also in there, off the back of a good third at the festival last month.
The truth is, there’s very little between Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File and the ratings back that up, so it’s just a case of who shows up on the day. Fact To File arrives here the fresher horse, which would be my main concern for Gaelic Warrior, because you just never know what a performance like that in the Gold Cup can take out of a horse. I’ve said it every year at this meeting with Al Boum Photo and Galopin Des Champs, but it’s so difficult to win a Gold Cup and back that performance up at Punchestown, and the horses that do manage it probably don’t get the credit they deserve.
Whatever happens, this will surely be one of the races of the week, and I can’t wait to ride in it. There’s nothing between them, and it will probably come down to one small mistake or one bit of brilliance, but if Gaelic Warrior can put up a similar performance to Cheltenham it’s going to take something special to stop him.
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