Punchestown report: A rogue mist meant that much of Nickname's impressive success was obscured to the Punchestown crowd yesterday but some bookmakers still saw enough for the star mudlark to overhaul Newmill in ante-post betting for next month's Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham.
An otherwise bright day suddenly threw up some pea-soup fog for the featured Byrne Group Tied Cottage Chase and punters in the stands could only vaguely make out the last fence by which time Nickname had established total control over the Grade Two event.
But the current title-holder Newmill was left requiring stitches over his eye after taking a crashing fall at the fourth last that was hardly the ideal preparation his connections had in mind for a Cheltenham return.
"He is unlikely to run again before Cheltenham," reported trainer John Murphy who travelled back to Cork with his local bookmaking firm, Cashmans, doubling Newmill's odds for a festival repeat to 8 to 1.
In contrast, they slashed Nickname to 5 to 1 second favourite despite testing conditions being an absolute pre-requisite for the ex-French star to even travel to Cheltenham. "He needs it to be soft and there's still five weeks to go so there's no way of knowing," said his trainer Martin Brassil who will continue the policy of making hay while the ground squelches.
"He is in the Newlands at Naas in three weeks. He's having it so easy that he's able to return so well. If he was having gruelling races, he couldn't do this," Brassil added. "There's no point gearing the whole season around one race at Cheltenham. But if the ground was suitable, running at Naas would still give us 17 days between then and the Champion."
The day's other major Cheltenham trial, the Grade Two novice hurdle, threw up a 50 to 1 shocker in Orbit O'Gold who was three lengths too good for De Valira.
As a result the latter's odds for the Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices Hurdle stretched to as high as 10 to 1 but De Valira ran a decent race compared to the favourite Perce Rock who was found to have a respiratory infection after beating only two home.
"I made Paul (Carberry) ride him in the Pierse because I thought he was our best chance but he ran no race," said Orbit O'Gold's trainer Noel Meade. "I'd say he'll go to Cheltenham alright."
The same comment applies to De Valira whose jockey Andrew Lynch blamed some trouble in running coming out of the back straight for the defeat. However, trainer Michael O'Brien said: "It was a messy race and you can't give away that much ground on that sort of ground. He might have been short of a gallop too. He's in at Leopardstown on Saturday but we could just go straight to Cheltenham."
Both the Grand National hero Numbersixvalverde and the Cheltenham festival winner Dun Doire remain on course for the big fences at Aintree in April after finishing ninth and fifth respectively behind Contessa Messina in the three mile handicap hurdle. "He had a blow and ran a good race. He's only aiming for the one day anyway," reported Numbersixvalverde's rider "Slippers" Madden whose mount stays on the 12 to 1 mark for a National repeat.
Teeming Rain doesn't hold an Aintree entry but Charlie Swan's horse proved his stamina with a narrow defeat of Dublin Hunter in the three-and-a-half-mile Grand National Trial.
Judge Roy Bean's winning debut in the bumper was enough to earn him a trip to Cheltenham for the Festival Bumper and Edward O'Grady expects significant improvement from the full brother to Cane Brake. "He's a big, raw horse who had to do it the hard way from the front there. If the owner and jockey want to go to Cheltenham, that is where I'd like to go," said O'Grady.
