Cheltenham stars will light up Punchestown

THE Punchestown executive must be smacking their collective lips in expectation of a massive spin-off from Cheltenham for their forthcoming festival.

Thirteen winners for Ireland last week has provided them with all of the advertising, all of the publicity, they could possibly need for the festival, which runs from Tuesday, May 3 through to Saturday, May 7.

The only thing Punchestown will now require, on the lead-in to five days which is absolutely certain to capture the public’s imagination, is a couple of hours rain here and there to ensure the ground will at least have the word yielding in it.