Track action to take centre stage as Mullins has rendered title talk redundant

At the 2018 Punchestown festival Willie Mullins responded to the seemingly irrepressible threat posed by Gordon Elliott in emphatic fashion.

Despite being more than €100,000 further clear going into the five-day season finale than he had been in 2017, Elliott was reeled in two days earlier by Mullins and finished up in excess of €600,000 worse off than he had done a year earlier. The impression prevailed that Mullins’ post-Gigginstown recovery was complete.

Sure enough, it duly proved to be a sign of things to come. This season he has obliterated the opposition and leads Elliott by more than €1 million as they prepare their battalions for the season's final assignments.

Mullins wrested back his trainers’ crown from the young pretender at the Cheltenham Festival, secured breakthrough wins in the Gold Cup and Irish Grand National, and will claim his 13th trainers’ championship here on Saturday. Beware the wounded lion.

If all that isn’t sufficiently comprehensive proof of Mullins's reinforced superiority, the chances are it will be properly rammed home by Saturday. Punchestown has long been Mullins’s personal fiefdom. He farmed a record 18 wins here last year and his running tally stands at 163 across 28 years. This is his patch, so expect another veritable lap of honour.

The Closutton maestro has also ensured Rachael Blackmore’s quest for a fairytale jockeys’ title was foiled, helping Paul Townend do enough to claim his second title.

As such, the focus over the next five days can be concentrated almost exclusively on what unfolds between our majestic equine protagonists out on the track. How bad.

Two-mile spectacular in store as front-runners do battle

Min and Un De Sceaux look poised to play starring roles in the first championship clash of the week when they go toe-to-toe in the BoyleSports Champion Chase.

Hot on the heels of his superlative Melling Chase success, Min is odds-on to make amends for a sub-par performance in this 12 months ago, when it was Un De Sceaux who posted yet another barnstorming exhibition to slay Douvan and co.

This time Un De Sceaux arrives on the back of his tamest defeat yet after finishing out of the first two for a first time in 27 completed starts in Ireland and Britain for Mullins when just fifth in the Ryanair Chase.

Min, pictured en route to a sparkling Melling Chase success at Aintree under Ruby WalshCredit: Edward Whitaker

It is worth remembering, though, that he had got within four lengths of the mighty Altior on his previous outing in the Tingle Creek, and this race has a history of not going to script. Indeed, two years ago it was Un De Sceaux who fluffed his lines as market leader behind Fox Norton. You have to go back to the peerless Sprinter Sacre in 2013 to find the last winning favourite – and he was a 1-9 shot.

However, one thing we can be pretty sure of is that this will be a gripping spectacle, with Mullins' JP McManus-owned Great Field also in the mix.

The only other time Jody McGarvey's mount has run here, he bolted up in the two-mile Grade 1 novice chase in 2017, when his trademark blitzkrieg style wreaked havoc. Bearing in mind that Un De Sceaux and Min are similarly inclined to race with the clutch out, this will not be for the faint-hearted. Sit tight.

Dream looking to follow in Douvan's hoofprints for Mullins and Walsh

In the wake of his decisive Supreme Novices’ Hurdle triumph, Klassical Dream trades at short odds to emulate Douvan’s 2015 feat by following up in the Herald Champion Novice Hurdle.

A slightly less flashy sort, this five-year-old posted his most impressive visual display yet under Ruby Walsh in the Cotswolds and he could prove a formidable rival in a race that in which Cheltenham winners Yorkhill and Labaik have capitulated since Douvan’s success.

Still, three of his five rivals are also Grade 1 winners. At Aintree, Felix Desjy built on his encouraging turn when fifth in the Supreme by making all under Jack Kennedy to deny the Walsh-ridden Aramon, confirming their Cheltenham pecking order.

Aramon had already won at the highest level at Leopardstown, while Quick Grabim, a third Mullins representative, likewise claimed the Royal Bond in December.

Throw in Mullins’ unexposed Fairyhouse Grade 2 winner Mister Blue Sky and McManus's Nicky Henderson-trained Champagne Platinum, and it might not be the formality the odds-compilers suggest.

Champagne Platinum is certainly an unknown quantity. Moreover, his trainer likes to leave his mark at this meeting.

Delta out to shake the RSA blues

When Delta Work lost out to Topofthegame and Santini in an epic RSA Chase, the consensus was we had witnessed the arrival of a brand new generation of bona fide Cheltenham Gold Cup prospects.

That theory was dented sooner than expected when Topofthegame failed to cope with Lostintranslation at Aintree, so it will be of significant interest to see how events unfold in the Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase.

Gigginstown's Delta Work is already a dual Grade 1 winner, and this is a chance for him to sign off a tremendous campaign on a positive note. Of his opposition, Paul Nolan’s National Hunt Chase runner-up Discorama drops in trip, while Articulum, Getabird and A Plus Tard are among those trying three miles for a first time.

This year’s Gold Cup hero Al Boum Photo played an infamous role in proceedings 12 months ago, and his rider Paul Townend is aboard the Rebecca Curtis-trained Drovers Lane this time. Townend wouldn’t be alone in hoping for a slightly less dramatic renewal.

Henderson looking to end two-year barren spell

In all, five British trainers will saddle six runners on day one of the festival. Curtis, Harry Fry, Sophie Leech and Nick Gifford join Henderson, who has endured two fruitless Punchestown expeditions in a row, having plundered a win at each of the six festivals up to 2016.

In the Land Rover Bumper he will saddle Jared Sullivan’s newcomer Son Of Camas. Henderson won the race 14 years ago with Its A Dream, although it is a race that now carries an altogether different distinction for the stable.

Four years ago Henderson sent over a five-year-old who could finish only sixth behind Bellshill, having been sent off at 14-1 under Kate Harrington.

It was a decent heat, for sure, but subsequent events render the outcome somewhat inexplicable, for the same horse has not been beaten in 19 subsequent outings. No prizes for guessing his name.

Bolger and Enniskillen back for another banks raid

The Kildare Hunt Club Fr Sean Breen Memorial Chase is the traditional curtain-raiser over the banks course. It’s a race Enda Bolger has won 13 times and he has chances again with Youcannotbeserious, Different Spot and Blue Templar.

Peter Maher also loves a cut at this and has won it twice, latterly in 2017 with Enniskillen, who is running for a tenth time at the festival, having contested this event six times. Including point-to-points, he has run at the track 29 times in all. Presumably that’s some kind of record.

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