The Punchestown Festival – Annie's Final Swansong?
It's the final week of this season's highly competitive and intriguing national hunt jump season and it couldn’t be a better crescendo to a season filled with many ups and downs. A man who has had to endure everything horse racing could throw at him this year is Willie Mullins, who despite almost everything going wrong still has an outside squeak at retaining his coveted trainers title. However, the fly in the ointment is that of Gordon Elliot who narrowly defeated Mullins to the Cheltenham trainer's title and a similar result here does seem likely come the end of this week's Punchestown festival.
For any other trainer, a deficit of just over £400,000 of prize money would be a forlorn hope to try and catch. Yet it will not stop Mullins from trying. The Closutton handler is looking to fire many bullets at the Punchestown festival, most notably a potential return for star mare Annie Power. Great is a word that can be used too frequently in many passages of sport but when thinking of Annie Power, you'd find it hard to find a more accurate adjective. The big question is though, if she runs, will this be Annie's last time on the course. The injury prone mare has recently been announced as in foal to Derby winner Camelot which must put into question her future on the track she has always graced. If they can get Annie back one last time, we pray that she can sign off in the way that only she knows how, by winning.
One of the most exciting clashes of the meeting occurs in just the second race of the first day when the still unexposed Melon faces off against the quirky but highly talented Labaik. The major question is whether the latter will even consent to run and therefore preference must lay with Melon. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see a return to form for the smart grey Bunk Off Early in this encounter either. This race alongside the clash between Ryanair winner Un De Sceaux and Melling Chase victor Fox Norton are just
some of the mouth watering clashes available throughout the week.
Despite the undeniable tension of the Mullins/Elliot rivalry, it is the matchup between Gold Cup winners Sizing John and Coneygree which is
likely to whet the appetite. In a race which contains some of Ireland and England's most established staying chasers, the answer to the victor of this race is easier debated rather than found. My preference must side with this year's Gold Cup form and therefore I feel that the improving second season chaser Sizing John has the measure of this contest. In fact, I still feel his biggest threat lies at the feet of Djakadam who would have more than likely secured his third consecutive Gold Cup second if not all but coming to grief at the second last at Cheltenham.
Clashes aside, matchups aside, it should be a great ending to what has been
an interesting and difficult season for some. My heart still goes out to some of the great horses we've lost this season including Vautour, Many Clouds and Reve de Sivola to name a few. Horse racing is a game where no victory comes without sacrifice, it's the toughest element to the game but also the most engrossing. God bless for a happy and healthy Punchestown festival for all involved and for Annie Power especially, do me proud.