King kicks-off Punchestown entries
The meeting runs from April 26 to 29, with the feature event being the Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup.
Aside from the Tom Taaffe-trained Kicking King, among the 15 entries are four from Britain, including Kingscliff, who was vying for favouritism at Cheltenham before being withdrawn close to the race.
Paul Nicholls has put in the Daily Telegraph Chase winner Thisthatandtother as well as Le Roi Miguel and Grand National runner-up Royal Auclair.
The peerless Moscow Flyer is likely to scare off his opponents again as he is one of only eight entered for the Kerrygold Champion Chase, a race he won last year.
However, more competitive should be the Emo Oil Champion Hurdle on the final day of the meeting.
Included in the 11 possibles at this stage are Harchibald, Brave Inca, Accordion Etoile, Macs Joy, Intersky Falcon and Al Eile, who occupied second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh in the Smurfit Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham last month.
Other highlights could be the appearance of two of J P McManus’s Aintree winners, Like-A-Butterfly and Fota Island, in the Swordlestown Cup, while the popular mare Solerina, who has not raced since February, could reappear in the Ballymore Properties Champion Stayers’ Hurdle.
There is record prize money of €2.127 million at this year’s meeting.
Grey Abbey meanwhile will miss next Saturday’s Gala Casinos Daily Record Scottish Grand National at Ayr.
Trainer Howard Johnson told the Racing Post: “He’s finished for the season - he’s done plenty. He seems fine and we will monitor things during the summer.
“We would look at something like the Charlie Hall. We might go for the Lexus in Ireland, where he would get soft ground.”
Take The Stand will however make a quick reappearance in the race. Trainer Peter Bowen had indicated that the nine-year-old would not run again this season after unseating Leighton Aspell at the Chair in the Grand National.
However, he has had a change of heart and Take The Stand is now set to shoulder top weight of 11st 12lb in the four-mile-one-furlong race.
Bowen said: “I would say he will probably run at Ayr.
“He didn’t have much of a race on Saturday as he only got as far as the Chair and he’s come out of that well.”
Take The Stand played a significant role at Aintree as he ran across the front of Becher’s second time round and carried out the leader, Clan Royal. The Welsh handler has taken out Ballycassidy, with that horse likely to head for the Betfred Gold Cup later this month.
Ruby Walsh, who partnered Hedgehunter to victory at Aintree on Saturday, is set to ride the novice Cornish Rebel as he bids to complete a ‘grand slam’ of National wins this season.
