First day of Punchestown Festival

Of the three big spring festivals of N.H. racing, we have already had two - Cheltenham and Aintree, and the third one starts today at Punchestown near Dublin. The meeting, which continues until Saturday, is the nearest the Irish have to Cheltenham and many of the top races can be seen as a repeat of the top races from the Cotswolds meeting.This applies parzticularly to today´s main event, the Grade One Champion Chase over 2 miles at 18.30 CET (There is a late start for the first 4 days of the fixture). The first four from the Queen Mother Champion Chase cross swords again here - in the order of the Cheltenham finish Sizing Europe (Henry de Bromhead/ Timmy Murphy), Big Zeb (Colm Murphy/ Barry Beraghty), Captain Cee Bee (Eddie Harty/ Tony McCoy) and Golden Silver (Willie Mullins/ Paul Townend). Sizing Europe made all the running at Cheltenham and won in excellent style, but this time the jockeys will not give him such an easy time up front, and we hope that the super-consistent Big Zeb can reverse the placings today. Golden Silver won this race last year - and also beat Big Zeb over this CD earlier in the year- but we feel that both he and his stable companion J´y Vole (Ruby Walsh) need softer ground than they will encounter here.

The other Grade One races are the Champion Novice Hurdle at 17.20 and the Champion Novice Chase over an extended 3 miles at 19.40. The latter event looks very open, although Quito de la Roque (Davy Russell) may be able to complete a double for Colm Murphy; he has won 5 of his last 6 starts, although none of them were on ground as fast as this. Quel Esprit (Mullins/ Walsh) has fallen the last twice, but if he stays on his feet, must be a definite danger, while Loosen my Load (de Bromhead/ Murphy) is moving up in distance. Thegreatjohnbrown (Noel Meade/ McCoy) was sold to JP McManus last week and should recoup some of the sale price, while British raider Reve de Sivola (Nick Williams/ Daryl Jacob) is very consistent and should also be placed.

Oilily (Shane Byrne/ Adrian Leigh) has been first or second on all 11 career starts and bids to keep up this record in the novice hurdle. German-bred Shot from the Hip (Edward O´Grady/ Andrew McNamara) has been a bit disappointing but is elways to be feared, while the jockey´s brother Robbie partners Dermot Weld´s Hidden Universe, who won the bumper at this meeting a year ago.