Sean Flanagan’s William Hill blog: Punchestown Festival Days 1 and 2 Preview

William Hill ambassador Sean Flanagan previews his Day 1 rides at the Punchestown Festival, including Marine Nationale in the William Hill Champion Chase

This is Ireland’s equivalent of the Cheltenham Festival and we have the cream of the crop going there again. There is enough of a gap between Cheltenham and Punchestown to allow horses to run at both meetings which is great. It can throw up the odd result, but at the same time it will be a fantastic week of racing.

Tuesday, Punchestown

I’ve only got two rides during the opening two days of the meeting and both come on the first day starting with Luminous Light, who runs in the first handicap hurdle on the card (3.05pm). There is a bit of a back-story to him. He was sourced by a good friend of mine called, who is also a past pupil of the school the crowd of teachers that own him are from.  There is a good bit of history to it and the horse has been ridden primarily by ex-students of the school. It is a good bit of craic and I’m delighted I have been on him every time he has won. To be fair to Anthony McCann he touted this race at the start of last season for this lad and he has done everything beautifully.

I had it in my head that he had to finish in the first two at Cork and we were going to finish second, but the other horse (Jacovec Cavern) tipped up at the last and we ended up winning. We only got five pounds for winning, but at the same time we could have been two or three pounds better off if we hadn’t won. It is a very competitive handicap and fair play to Punchestown for putting on plenty of trials for this race with plenty in England, which is good to see. He has been a free going sort of lad and his run back at Fairyhouse in January was his first run over fences and he learnt a good bit on the day. He won on his next start over them at Clonmel on his next outing and he is a progressive type of horse. I don’t know if we are at the full end of his mark yet because of his improvement.

There was probably still a bit of improvement in him from his run back over hurdles at Cork as we had this race in mind. I don’t think I would change him looking at him as he has been there and done it. He has the form in the book and those couple of runs over fences which would have made a man of him. He is there with a live chance.

My big ride is on Marine Nationale who I’m looking forward to getting back on board in the William Hill Champion Chase (6pm). There is the unknown with Fact To File and you like to see horses going in the other direction starting off at shorter distances and working their way up. He was very impressive in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, but will he be quick enough to drop back down to two miles remains to be seen. He is a very quick jumper over a longer distance, but the shorter distance will definitely test him and the ground drying a bit will probably be a negative for him as we will go that bit quicker. We have beaten pretty much everything, bar the unknown that is Fact To File, but my lad has come out of Cheltenham well.

I don’t think Cheltenham was really the track for Solness, but he will come out here and go quick. Will Fact To File jump out with him, I’d say he probably would as he wouldn’t want to go steady early on. It could be a tactical sort of race. My lad is in fantastic form and he is a very quick and smart horse. I’m happy to let the race unfold and whatever will be, will be. Touch-wood, he jumps very well and he has plenty of experience.

Speaking to Barry (Connell, trainer and owner) about him he said he has never been in such good form as he is now since coming out of Cheltenham so hopefully that is a good thing. For everyone who is involved in the horse it is an emotional time as it is the best taking on the best and that is what we get out of bed for. I think if Marine Nationale can do what he did at Cheltenham he will be bang there. At Cheltenham I ended up there plenty soon enough. While Quilixios tipped up at the last my lad was only going through the motions. He has pricked his ears and gone up the hill and won with plenty in hand and I do believe he is good enough to beat Fact To File.

Wednesday, Punchestown Gold Cup

I’ve not got a ride in the Punchestown Gold Cup on Wednesday, but despite there only being four runners it still looks like a good race. You would have to be worried how Galopin Des Champs operated at Cheltenham and he has been beaten in this race previously. He had a hard race that day, but he has still finished off well. It would be a very good training performance to get him back. Spillane’s Tower is the freshest horse of the lot of them, but he has been in all season, however he hasn’t had those hard races the others have had because he has not had his ground. I would stick with him so long as the ground is safe enough to take part.