DAY ONE REVIEW:PRESUMPTION BARELY escaped getting the ultimate kick-in-the-teeth at Punchestown yesterday evening when the great two-mile champion Master Minded only barely scrambled home by a head in the Kerrygold Chase. In fact only a bad mistake at the last by the runner-up Big Zeb prevented a seismic upset for the long odds-on favourite whose expected cakewalk instead turned into a desperate struggle.
Big Zeb proved a revelation, despite not jumping as fluently as Master Minded, and looking to have been put firmly in his place after the third last when the pace-forcing favourite opened up a lead. Briefly it all looked to be over but in a sport where even legendary names like Secretariat, Shergar and even Arkle have managed to get beaten, nothing is ever straight-forward.
Between the last two fences Ruby Walsh suddenly started to get serious with Master Minded and remarkably Barry Geraghty looked to have timed his challenge to perfection. He did, too, except Big Zeb ploughed through the last. Even after that, Big Zeb was catching Master Minded all the way to the line in a race that will have put some merchants in the betting ring closer to a cardiac unit. “I’d imagine he would have won,” claimed Geraghty. “He was very long at the last but I had to commit and he got a bit low and pitched. It’s a pity he was beaten but it was still a great performance.”
Master Minded’s trainer Paul Nicholls disagreed with any idea that his superstar had got lucky, instead pointing out how making the pace doesn’t suit his horse. “He was idling out there but there was no point holding him up in a slowly-run race. Ideally he likes an end-to-end gallop and I would imagine in the Tingle Creek, which will be his next start, he might have a pacemaker,” he said.
“If Big Zeb had jumped the last it would have been interesting but jumping is the name of the game.”
The impact of yesterday’s race was felt in ante-post betting for next year’s Champion Chase as Master Minded is no longer odds on in some lists while Big Zeb is as low as 7 to 1 to spoil his rival’s hat-trick bid at Cheltenham.
“He will stick to two miles,” confirmed Big Zeb’s trainer Colm Murphy. “It’s a pity to get so close and not win but he is on the upgrade and he’s something to look forward to.”
And that looks a safe bet.
Meanwhile, Jessica Harrington is always a force around here and secured the €100,000 Goffs Land Rover Bumper with the 4 to 1 favourite Imperial Cascade who won under the trainer’s 19-year-old daughter Kate.
“It’s fantastic Kate rode the winner. There was a lot of pressure on her but she gave him a great ride, on the inside rail throughout. She’s very keen on that rail!” Harrington laughed.
Harrington is hosting Nicky Henderson this week and the English trainer continued his fine record here with Quantitativeeas- ing’s debut bumper victory under JP Magnier.
John ‘Shark’ Hanlon had to settle for runner up spot in the Land Rover but the trainer had earlier scored with the 16 to 1 shot Truckers Delight in the handicap hurdle.
In the Champion Novice Chase, the Willie Mullins trained Cooldine finished well back in fourth, behind Rare Bob.
Dessie Hughes’s winner showed no ill effects from his run in the Irish National. “We thought the National might be a novices race this year but he didn’t get the trip,” said Hughes. “What it did though was make a man of him,” he said. Mullins reported after the race that Cooldine appears to have a mild chest infection.
The first day of the Punchestown Festival with a 16,324 opening session crowd was down almost 2,000 on the corresponding date last year. Betting turnover was also on the slide. Yesterday’s Tote turnover of €585,515 was down over €200,000 on 2008. The bookmaker figure of €1.8 million was also down by €488,000.
