29-04-2025
Fact To File can make class tell on day one at Punchestown
The Grade One William Hill Champion Chase is a fine feature on the opening day of the 2025 Punchestown festival as the six-strong field includes the current Champion Chaser, a former champion, and the Ryanair Chase winner from this year's Cheltenham Festival.
Fact To File, who was long considered a Gold Cup contender for this season, never got as far as racing's Blue Riband, but he was imperious in the Ryanair, trouncing his rivals by nine lengths and more. This is another test of the eight-year-old, as he drops to two miles for the first time since finishing runner-up in the Champion Bumper at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival, but he can come through with flying colours.
Going a stride or two faster over this trip should bring further improvement in his jumping, and this all-class eight-year-old son of Poliglote can come out on top.
Champion Chaser and former Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Marine Nationale is at home over this trip and that will sway many punters in his favour. He was behind Solness on a couple of occasions this season but reversed the form at Cheltenham.
That race was still up for grabs until Quilixios fell at the last, a departure which left Marine Nationale to come home clear of the remainder. That was a career-best over fences but if Fact To File takes to the discipline of two-mile chasing, he will provide an even stiffer task.
Kopek Des Bordes is likely to be the shortest-priced runner on the card and there is no solid reason to oppose him in the Grade One KPMG Champion Novice Hurdle.
Sent off a 15-8 chance when winning on his only start in a bumper, he was odds-on to make a winning debut over hurdles at Christmas and duly obliged. Odds-on once again for a Grade One at the Dublin Racing Festival, he came home virtually alone and then obliged at 4-6 when getting the better of Wiliam Munny in a late battle for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle.
With just three runs thus far this season, he hasn't been over-raced, and in the expectation that he will at least run to his level, there ought to be just one result.
Stablemate Salvator Mundi has long been talked about as a horse of serious ability and he put it all together last time out, at Aintree, when winning a Grade One with real swagger. Whether that was end-of-season form or a true sign that he has turned a corner is difficult to ascertain, but he must certainly be respected.
The Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Hurdle is the other Grade One on the card, and Ballyburn reads as the most likely winner, even though he has something to prove and, understandably, won't make universal appeal.
He was below his best when fifth in the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham Festival, but a bad mistake cost him all chance and he didn't get the opportunity to show his true colours. Likely to be ridden much more positively this time, if he is back to his best, he will take a great deal of beating.
Brown Advisory winner Lecky Watson is respected but there are a couple of much bigger priced horses worth an each-way interest. Former Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Slade Steel hasn't run since finishing second to Lecky Watson in a beginners' chase, but that can stand to him . Winner of his only outing in a point-to-point, he is untested over the trip inside the rails, but it can bring about the necessary improvement for him to play a role at this level.
He has a hurdling verdict over Lecky Watson, over two and a half miles on heavy ground, and if conditions are not too quick for him, he will outrun his odds. Stellar Story was runner-up to Lecky Watson at Cheltenham, but a stronger pace and greater test of stamina could allow him to reverse that form.
The listed Killashee Hotel Handicap Hurdle is deeply competitive and while it is difficult to make strong recommendations for a career maiden, there is little doubt that Irish Panther has the ability to go close. The lightly-raced eight-year-old has been in the first three on eight of his 10 outings to date and last time out, when posting his worst position, he ran much better than the 10th-place finish might suggest. Fast ground and a strong pace will play to his strengths, and he has strong each-way claims.
