The best Grade One action is saved until last this weekend but there’s little doubt about the most exciting runner being up straight away.
Bob Olinger, the hugely impressive Cheltenham festival winner, makes his eagerly anticipated debut over fences in the very first race of Punchestown's Winter Festival at noon on Saturday.
It takes place before TG4’s coverage at the Co Kildare track begins and 24 hours ahead of RTÉ 2 screening Sunday’s €100,000 Unibet Morgiana Hurdle.
That is the first Grade One of the season over flights and an early test at identifying a legitimate threat to Honeysuckle’s apparently impregnable Champion Hurdle crown in March.
Such are the levels of expectation around Bob Olinger that no such identity parade would be necessary if he continued to race over hurdles this season.
This is the horse acclaimed as a “freak” by his opposition after a supremely impressive victory in Cheltenham’s Ballymore Hurdle eight months ago.
A race with a pedigree of throwing up superb Champion Hurdle winners such as Istabraq and Faugheen looked to have done it again as Bob Olinger and Rachael Blackmore shot clear of Grade One- winning rivals.
Even Blackmore’s instinct for the understated couldn’t prevent her from describing the novice’s potential as “sky high”.
Despite trainer Henry de Bromhead’s ‘Holy Trinity’ of Cheltenham championship winners – Honeysuckle, Put The Kettle On and Minella Indo – for many it was Bob Olinger’s performance that most caught the imagination.
What that says about racing fans and the instinct for potential over proven accomplishment is an interesting theoretical idea.
More tangible though was how bookmakers immediately made him a clear second favourite to dethrone his undefeated stable companion in the 2022 Champion Hurdle.
A summer’s deliberation, however, has led to Bob Olinger being switched to fences and a first ‘high-noon’ test on Saturday.
The tantalising prospect with this horse is how the tactical speed he showed in abundance at Cheltenham on his last start is combined with the stamina that saw him easily win a point-to-point two years ago.
Even with competition in the new novice ranks from an outstanding prospect like Appreciate It, there’s little doubt it is Bob Olinger who carries the most expectation.
Without having jumped a fence in public he is already a 3-1 favourite for his likely Cheltenham target, the Marsh Chase.
How Envoi Allen’s season fizzled out last season was just the latest warning against investing too much in the newest tyro.
However, it will still be a major anti-climax if the Bob ‘bubble’ gets burst first time out in his new career.
There are few more proven champions around Cheltenham right now than Bob Olinger’s stable-mate Put The Kettle On who returns to action there on Sunday.
Unbeaten in four starts at the home of National Hunt racing, Put The Kettle On renews rivalry with Nube Negra, who chased her home by half a length in the Champion Chase, in the four-runner Shloer Chase.
She is the star Irish name in the weekend action at Cheltenham which features Saturday’s Paddy Power Gold Cup.
Only a single Irish-trained horse has won the famous handicap in the last 40 years – Tranquil Sea in 2009 – and the sole raider this time, Funky Dady, is the sponsor’s complete outsider of the 20 runners.
Saturday's Grade Two prize at Punchestown is the BetVictor Casino Chase where the four-year-old filly Riviere d'Etel looks primed to exploit the allowance system.
Bective Stud’s French-bred gets a 7lbs sex allowance as well as 8lbs for her age. Throw in another 3lbs from the Grade Three winners Cape Gentleman and Embittered and this Fairyhouse winner should be tough to beat.
The sex allowance also looks like being a key calculation ahead of the Morgiana in which Willie Mullins will hope normal service resumes.
Mullins, who won the race nine times in a row before Abacadabras ended the streak in 2020, saddles both his stalwart performer Sharjah and the progressive mare Echoes In Rain.
The latter won at the top level here at the festival last spring but on official ratings faces a task that bookmakers clearly feel isn’t beyond her having installed Echoes In Rain favourite.
Seán O’Keeffe, who won the Martin Pipe for Mullins on Galopin Des Champs, rides her for the first time.
Patrick Mullins is on his old ally Sharjah, winner of this in 2018, and who had the thankless task of chasing home Honeysuckle on a regular basis last season.
An official 164 rating makes Sharjah the benchmark for the rising young stars in a five-runner field that also includes the title-holder Abacadabras and his stable companion, Zanahiyr, who impressed at Down Royal.
"I couldn't have been happier with him at Down Royal and this is another step up again and big step for a four-year-old. But he's been good since and it will tell us more about where he fits in," Zanahiyr's trainer Gordon Elliott said on Friday.
There may not be improvement left in Sharjah but on decent ground he could still have too much for his younger rivals.
Sunday’s main support event is the Grade Two Novice Chase where Vanillier tries to step up on his debut over fences at Down Royal. In contrast Sixshooter impressed on his chasing bow at Galway although ground conditions will be much quicker now.
Another Cheltenham winner, Telmesomethinggirl, has to concede weight all round in a Listed hurdle later on the card.
