Punchestown 4.15 - Novice Handicap Chase - (Listed) - 2 miles 4 and 1/2 furlongs - 17 run - Yielding (Showers) There are quite a few in here who haven't yet looked entirely comfortable over chase Fences, a few whose Chase form looks promising but in small fields where there hasn't yet been too much pace pressure on their jumping and one expose...

Punchestown 6.35 Handicap Hurdle - 25 run - Good to Yielding (dry until after race time) The obvious starting point is the hot and well backed favourite CAPTAIN CODY from the Mullins Team, unproven at the trip and on handicap debut, with a somewhat average P2P record over this sort of 3 mile trip, it's around 5/2 and logic and experience sugge...

SEAN - Punchestown. I will have a look at the 3.05 Handicap Hurdle which outside of the top 5-6 in the market is full of unexposed form and a few who at face value are just making up the numbers, they call this a "Festival" but in the literal sense too many of the races are like this one with a significant disparity of experience and ability, ...

YARMOUTH 4.25 - Class 4 Handicap - 1 mile - 13 run - Good to Soft  There are showers about and a lot of AW form here and of those with Turf form the majority would definitely prefer it to be genuinely Good or Good to Firm ground. It is very early still in the flat season but a couple stand out, one on potential and the other on rock solid...

YARMOUTH 4.25 - Class 4 Handicap - 1 mile - 13 run - Good to Soft  There are showers about and a lot of AW form here and of those with Turf form the majority would definitely prefer it to be genuinely Good or Good to Firm ground. It is very early still in the flat season but a couple stand out, one on potential and the other on rock solid...

An excellent win for Maxxum at 28/1 at Punchestown yesterday evening, franked the detailed analysis of the rock solid if exposed form put up by Sean. Will Do was widely available at 40/1 when the mails were sent out so I'm not sure how it dropped to 11/1 SP, but if you got anything north of 25/1 in the few hours after tips went out, that will have ...

Black Bamboo ran well enough to place as we'd anticipated at Punchestown yesterday and the declared T/Cast suggestion almost came off with 1st; 2nd ; 4th, clobbered only by Black Bamboo. Unfortunately James Du Berlais took a crashing fall in the big Handicap Chase when going well and we keep our fingers crossed he is OK, Embittered ran we...

We'll have a bash at a couple of the Punchestown Festival Races today but with a clear message from Sean about the vagaries of this Meeting and the dangers involved.  The Cards at Ascot; Brighton and Wolverhampton are very short on runners in Handicaps and non-Handicaps and there isn't too much to enthuse over either at Kempton or Pontefr...

A solitary place and a few non runners meant it was a poor and frustrating day yesterday. The Punchestown Festival starts today and Sean will oversee the week there. On Day 1 there are a couple of big field Handicaps but he has decided to sit back and watch today describing the 2 mile Handicap as a minefield and the other Handicap Hurdle Final...

A win for the well backed Enochdhu at 4/1 , whose price was also impacted by 3 non runners in his race, and an 11/1 place to SP for Star Shield were the highlights yesterday at Bath and Wetherby respectively. There are 5 Meetings today including two on the All Weather, we'll focus on the Turf though with some decent competitive handicaps and a...