A veteran Grade 1 winner, a remarkable jockey meltdown and a beaten Gold Cup hero - five famous Punchestown shocks

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Ah, Punchestown – quality racing in a relaxed environment, but also a time when imaginative punters can really let rip. It's the end of term, lots of big-name runners have gone over the top and we'll get winners whose claims would have been impossible to divine by mere form analysis.

That's how I instinctively see the week, conditioned by results like Planet Of Sound winning the Punchestown Gold Cup, with Denman fourth, or good old Rathgar Beau pipping Moscow Flyer. But times have moved on a bit. 

Scrolling through the winner lists for the Grade 1s in the past ten years, there's an awful lot of Willie Mullins-trained favourites. This meeting used to be an after-thought for the best horses, trained to peak in mid-March, but Mullins loves it and his softly, softly style of training gives his string every chance of still being in peak condition at the end of April. 

The Barberstown Castle Novice Chase on Thursday, the Arkle equivalent, shows this clearly. Mullins has trained the last ten winners, seven of which were odds-on. The biggest winning SP was 7-2 about Il Etait Temps beating Gaelic Warrior a couple of years ago. Now, one is a Champion Chaser and the other a Gold Cup horse and it seems mildly surprising the market had them that way round for a race over two miles. 

Anyway, it looks like your imagination may be better applied to the handicaps these days. But, in case it should provoke any useful thoughts about this week's action, here's a reminder about some of the surprising Grade 1 outcomes we've seen at recent Punchestown festivals.

Champ Kiely (22-1, 2025)

Outsiders become more interesting when there's a dodgy favourite and here it was Ballyburn, who had just been really disappointing at the Cheltenham Festival. Backers kept faith with him but he ran to a similar level. Also contributing to the surprise, Cheltenham hero Lecky Watson was an early faller, bringing down Impaire Et Passe, those two being second and third in the betting.

Champ Kiely had also been a beaten favourite the time before, just nine days earlier at Fairyhouse, when he had over-raced in front and got tired on deep ground. On much better ground and restrained off the pace until the final turn, he was a stone better this time. 

Champ Kiely: Grade 1 winner at the Punchestown festivalCredit: Patrick McCann

Fastorslow (20-1, 2023)

Galopin Des Champs had just delivered a mighty performance to win the Gold Cup by seven lengths, so of course he was favourite. He was unbeaten over fences, except for falling at Cheltenham as a novice when about to win easily. 

But he bumped into a quality rival who was finally showing his ability. Fastorslow had been beaten in the Ultima at Cheltenham but only by a neck, trying to give 4lb to Corach Rambler, who had then romped home in the Grand National. 

That Ultima run was a stone better than anything Fastorslow had done before, showing his unexposed potential for three miles. That's why some were prepared to give him a chance and he took another step forward to score by daylight. Proving there was no fluke about it, he beat Galopin in the same race a year later.

Fastorslow wins the Punchestown Gold Cup from Galopin Des Champs and Bravemansgame (right)Credit: Caroline Norris (racingpost.com/photos)

Mighty Potter (20-1, 2022)

Sir Gerhard's career became disappointing but his reputation was never higher than the build-up to this, as he'd won the Cheltenham race we now know as the Turners. Of course, he'd been beaten at odds-on at Punchestown the year before after winning at Cheltenham, so that was one warning note and another was that he was stepping back down in trip by five furlongs. 

Mighty Potter had got outpaced and made mistakes behind Constitution Hill in the Supreme, but there was no shame in that and this was much more winnable. Considering he'd won a Grade 1 the time before, the market's lack of interest was surprising. 

Around the final turn, it was Sir Gerhard who was made to look short of pace. This was a result for Gordon Elliott over Mullins, not a common theme at Punchestown . . .

Mighty Potter proves too strong in the Champion Novice HurdleCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The Storyteller (16-1, 2018)

. . . but here's another, albeit it required extraordinary circumstances. This was blood and thunder stuff from the second-last, where Monalee, the favourite, fell and took out Invitation Only.

That left Al Boum Photo in front and surely nothing was going to catch this future Gold Cup winner if he'd just been pointed at the final fence. Instead, Paul Townend had the meltdown of all time and decided to bypass it, taking out Finian's Oscar in the process. 

So The Storyteller was handed the prize. A handicap winner at Cheltenham, he'd been cuffed by Al Boum Photo at Fairyhouse and probably should have been again. He was game and consistent but also very fortunate on this occasion. 

Unowhatimeanharry (16-1, 2019)

Victory for an old stager. Unowhatimeanharry had been a top stayer in his time and had won this two years earlier. But now he was 11 and his recent form suggested he couldn't do it any more. 

On the other hand, this was a weak race. Bapaume was favourite, despite having been beaten 30 lengths in the same race 12 months before. He was winless since a much shorter race in France the previous summer. Had he come from any yard other than that of Willie Mullins, enthusiasm would have been hard to detect.

Unowhatimeanharry enjoyed racing prominently behind a manageable pace and kept on grinding. The others lacked the class to get alongside him in the closing stages.

Delighted connections in the winner's enclosure with Unowhatimeanharry after the Ladbrokes Champion Stayers HurdleCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

How many times have we been tempted to give the fading hero one more chance against unpromising youngsters? It would be quite an expensive system, I bet, but it worked here.

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