Madam keeps it in the family
She's owned by Dermot Cox, who was chairman of Punchestown for a number of years, and winning here means everything to him and his family.
The mare was at the bottom of the handicap and she really appreciated the testing ground, and won well. I can remember her dam, Saraemma, winning the BMW Chase - the race Sprinter Sacre won - almost 20 years ago (1994).
Getting back to Jezki, he was brilliant on Tuesday. He did everything right. He jumped fluently. I thought the ground would have been too heavy for him but he seemed to skip across the top of it.
When he jumped the last he looked like he was going to win by four or five lengths but in about five strides he put 16 lengths between himself and the others.
And they were ridden out to the line because they were battling out for second and third but he just seemed to have a turbo jet.
Maybe he likes a flat track - you don't know, but he's only a five-year-old and he'll mature more and if he improves again, he should be on the premises in the Champion Hurdle, which is his target for next year.
He's got Our Conor to take on and, of course, My Tent Or Yours who, like Jezki, is owned by JP McManus. I think the plan will be to campaign him here in Ireland - all going well, they won't meet until Cheltenham. The ground was against Bostons Angel in the La Touche Cup but he ran a great race. He might go for some of the Cross-Country Chases in Europe now. There's one in France, one in Belgium and you've got the Velka Pardubica in the Czech Republic. With him, it's a case of 'have horse, will travel'.
I'd love to see him back on good ground. He was out in the field yesterday morning, bucking and kicking as though he hadn't had a race.
Macnicholson ran a very good race in the Land Rover Bumper. He was almost brought down when he was just starting to make his run and if that hadn't happened he would have been a lot nearer. I was delighted with him because the ground wouldn't really have suited him. He's a nice horse for the future.
I was thrilled with Oscars Well. He jumped pretty well on the whole and was a long way clear of the third. He hasn't had a bad season - he's won two races and has been second in three Grade 1s.
Today we run One Fine Day in the four-year-old hurdle. I know the ground probably won't suit her but she ran a great race in Fairyhouse and she's a filly so we have to take a chance that she might get placed in a Grade 1.
Rock The World runs in the bumper and he's a nice horse bit it's hard to know what's in against him.
I saw Barry Connell's horse, Martello Tower, win a point to point in Ballyragget last month. Again, it's hard to know how good that was, but I know they were very pleased with him that day. Ours is a nice horse - it just depends how good the others are.
I have no runners tomorrow because the ground is very heavy, but I might have a couple in Ascot during the week. The going is good over there at the moment and I've entered Steps To Freedom in the Sagaro. On ratings he's got a chance and it'll be great to get the right conditions for him. He was meant to run this week but the ground was too heavy. I may also run Liberating in a Listed race.
On the whole, it’s probably been the best Punchestown ever. They got great crowds - it was up 5000 on Tuesday and the reception Sprinter Sacre received was phenomenal.
He had run in three top-class races in a few weeks and any horse that does that is entitled to be a bit tired.
Nicky was in some panic about the race on Monday and Tuesday. He gets very emotional, which is wonderful to see as it shows it's not a money-making machine - a lot of emotion goes into it.
He couldn't get over how well Punchestown looked after not only the owners of Sprinter Sacre and himself but also the owners of Long Run. Punchestown are very good at doing that.
It was actually quite good to see an English horse win the Champion Bumper. David Pipe has had no luck bringing horses over for the past few years. A number of things have gone wrong for him - freak things - and it was great to see his luck turn.
