Master Minded at Punchestown

The big Punchestown N.H. meeting, which starts today and runs through to Saturday, now rivals Cheltenham´s festival in its prize-money and the quality of racing. That is certainly the case today, when the three top races are all contested by Cheltenham winners. Star of the show is undoubtedly Master Minded (Paul Nicholls/ Ruby Walsh), officially rated the best N.H. horse in training and in fact the best since Arkle; he runs in the Grade One Kerrygold Gold Cup over 2 miles at 19.05 CET. Nicholls won the race last year with Twist Magic and it seems that nothing will stop the stable completing the double today, even though the opposition includes two previous runners of the race in Newmill (2006) and Mansony (2007).

On recent form however they cannot live with Master Minded, who will start at long odds-on. The obvious candidate for second place is Big Zeb (Colm Murphy/ Barry Geraghty), who fell in Cheltenham´s Champion Chase, won easily by Master Minded, but has since won over hurdles. The meeting starts on a sour note with the decision to start all racing later than normal, usually at 16.45 CET. This controversial decision, greeted in some quarters but mainly heavily criticised, means that these are basically evening meetings.