SOME GNARLY grinders line up for today’s three-mile Punchestown festival feature, the Ladbrokes World Series Hurdle, but the young dude of the race, Mourad, can put his elders in their place.
Mourad is one of a three-strong attack on the €170,000 Day Three centrepiece by Willie Mullins who scored with Fiveforthree last year and who has already exhibited some white-hot form this week.
Not surprisingly, Paul Townend is on board the double-Cheltenham heroine Quevega and like Mourad she tackles three miles for the first time in her career.
The other Mullins starter, Cousin Vinny, ran over the trip when unplaced behind Big Buck’s at Cheltenham.
Big Buck’s dominates the stayers division but his absence this evening will be a relief for some of those who have been fruitlessly chasing him for the last couple of seasons. Chief among them has been Karabak and his trainer Alan King, successful with Blazing Bailey in 2008, will be hoping to successfully end a campaign frustrated by health problems in his yard.
King also has Bensalem coming back from a chasing career let down by some poor jumping but Karabak, fourth at Cheltenham last month, sets the mark on official figures in today’s context.
“Karabak will be fresher than most. He needs a gap between his races which is why he has not had much racing,” King said yesterday.
“We always planned to miss Aintree and come here so he is fresh and well.”
Of the home team opposing Karabak, there is the surprise Cheltenham winner Bertie’s Dream, who goes out of novice class for the first time, the Cheltenham specialist Powerstation, runner-up in this race three years ago, and Grade One winner Oscar Dan Dan.
However, not for the first time, much of the festival attention will be on the Mullins trio, especially Quevega who returned to action with a bang after a 10-month lay -off when trouncing her David Nicholson opponents at Cheltenham again last month.
The furthest she has ever gone was the two miles and six she attempted at Auteuil last summer but that race was a non-event for Quevega and her stamina prospects can’t be judged on that.
What is significant is Mullins’s decision to run her here instead of in tomorrow’s two mile championship. Mullins had been making positive noises about Mourad’s stamina even before the youngest horse in today’s race slammed the high-class Donna’s Palm by a dozen lengths at Fairyhouse a fortnight ago. “He has never been over three miles but I think the further he goes, the better,” the champion trainer said.
Crucially, all the evidence suggests the chestnut has been crying out for the sort of decent ground he will have today and this combination of three miles on this surface should be perfect for Mourad.
