1pt win My Tent Or Yours @2/1, 17:30 Punchestown

The highlight of Friday’s Punchestown Festival card is the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Hurdle, where six go to post in an interesting renewal.

Due to injury and fatigue, there’s no Faugheen or Annie Power, who have dominated the division the past two seasons, so Rich Ricci and Willie Mullins have rerouted Mare’s Hurdle-winner Vroum Vroum Mag here instead.

She gets 7lb off the boys and is the 13/8 favourite, but I’d argue she doesn’t set the standard on form and, rather, the next horse back in the market MY TENT OR YOURS does after getting closest to Annie Power in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

That was after a long layoff so he has every right to improve, which should leave him the clear form pick; he should be favourite arriving fresher than most.

He also ran at Aintree over a longer trip and probably had his stamina limitations exposed, but this is back to two miles and with the ground still pretty good he should run a big race.

Vroum Vroum Mag is difficult to assess but she’s been priced up like she’s Annie Power and she isn’t.

Annie Power was already a multiple-Grade 1 winner before the Champion Hurdle and had previously placed in a hot renewal of the World Hurdle, whilst Vroum Vroum Mag has never raced the opposite sex before and is totally unproven at this level.

There seems to be uncertainty from the Mullins yard around what her best trip or game is, as she’s won over three miles as well as the minimum trip and has mixed up chasing with hurdling throughout her unbeaten career in Britain and Ireland.

One of Mullins’s greatest qualities is placing his horses, so the decision to run here has to be respected, but so does the chance of the class horse My Tent Or Yours.

Of the rest, Identity Thief, twice advised by us earlier in the season, looks the biggest threat, but his Cheltenham run wasn’t great and he has too much to find with the selection on that run considering he’s only a slightly longer price.

1pt win My Tent Or Yours @2/1, 17:30 Punchestown

Leave a comment

Send a Comment

Your email address will not be published.