Ruby Walsh: Dream scenario awaits Klassical at Punchestown
Klassical Dream travelled well to the last hurdle at Cheltenham last month but failed to see out the stiff finish. He should be better suited to Punchestown. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
After the Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle at 5.25pm today, this meeting will only be at the halfway point, with 20 winners decided and two and a half days of action still to come. That race is the highlight of day three, and with Flooring Porter not turning up, having taken up the left-handed option at Aintree earlier in the month, this race may lack the frontrunner some of the runners will require.
Sire Du Berlais and Paisley Park are what I would consider the traditional staying hurdle types in that they need to be flat out for the first two miles to bring out the best in them in the last mile.
I don't see the frontrunner who will go fast enough to drag that pair, so the race could set up nicely for the defending champion Klassical Dream. At Cheltenham, he travelled well to the last hurdle but failed to see out the stiff finish. Being back on this easier track should help him last home.
This evening, the other Grade One contest, the Barberstown Castle Novice Chase, comes at 6.35pm. When the declarations appeared on Tuesday morning, Gentleman De Mee's connections would have been thrilled to see Magic Daze missing from the line-up.
Both are free-running types, so one defection makes things easier for the other, and Gentleman De Mee was dominant from the front at Aintree last time, where he beat Arkle hero Edwardstone. Five of the remaining six chased him home at Cheltenham — well, they lined up with Edwardstone, at least. Saint Sam got brought down at the fourth, and he remains the one open to landing a surprise and is the value choice here.
As was the case yesterday, today's opening contest is a very tricky handicap hurdle and I, for one, will merely be an observer. You could argue that the second race, at 4.15pm, is equally trappy, but Grange Walk looked set to score when falling two out at Fairyhouse ten days ago and he may be able to gain some compensation today.
The longest race in the Irish racing calendar, the La Touche Cup over four miles and two furlongs, is up at 4.50pm and plenty of familiar names and longstanding dishes appear once more. Ballyboker Bridge first ran in it as an eight-year-old in 2015, when he fell two out when just about to take the lead. He was third as a nine-year-old in 2016, didn't run in the 2017 edition, and was third in 2018 at 11 years of age.
As a 12-year-old, in 2019, he won it by 25 lengths, while Covid-19 won the 2020 renewal before a 14-year-old Ballyboker Bridge slipped up last year. None the worse for that, he pulled out two days later and went down by half a length in the Saturday cross-country race. Fairytales happen at Punchestown, and a 15-year-old winning the La Touche will be another. Having been campaigned so sparingly all his life by Peter Maher, with just 27 runs in total, it is not impossible.
Last year, Tuesday’s Grade One Novice Chase winner Capodanno bolted up in the Conway Piling Handicap Hurdle, and if there is a novice lurking in the shadows perhaps it is Macs Charm. How he fares will have a bearing on the chance of my selection in the Close Brothers Mares’ Handicap Chase at 7pm as Minx Tiara followed him home at Navan in March. She has since won over fences at Limerick and went up seven pounds in the handicap, but her mark of 132 is one she has been competitive off over hurdles, and this chase might be easier to win.
The Cheltenham Bumper third James’s Gate would look too good for his opposition in the last, but I imagine his price will reflect that reality.
