Fact To File is on track to return to action in next month’s €300,000 Ladbrokes Gold Cup at the Punchestown Festival.
The mercurial JP McManus-owned star was a major topic of controversy at the recent Cheltenham Festival when taken out of the Ryanair Chase an hour before the race due to connections’ fears about ground conditions being too quick.
Both McManus and Willie Mullins were notably vocal about their displeasure with what they viewed as a lack of sufficient watering by Cheltenham officials. It led Mullins to threaten not to bring horses to the festival in future if ground conditions aren’t soft enough.
Even prior to that, their decision to opt for the easier Ryanair option rather than tackle the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Fact To File was also a major talking point. McManus said he had stamina fears for the horse in steeplechasing’s ‘blue riband’.
READ MORE
A sense of ‘what if’ deepened when Gaelic Warrior ran away with the Gold Cup in a devastating and dominant display. Just six weeks beforehand he had been a five-length runner-up to Fact To File in the Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival.
All of it has sharpened public appetite for Fact To File’s next appearance, which could be a potential mouthwatering end-of-season clash with Gaelic Warrior at Punchestown.
McManus’s racing manager Frank Berry poured cold water on Fact To File lining up in the Aintree Bowl at Liverpool’s Grand National festival and firmly pointed the gelding at Punchestown on April 29th.
“They do a great job with the ground in Punchestown so I would be surprised if he doesn’t end up there in the three-mile race,” he said on Monday.
Fact To File started an odds-on favourite at last year’s Punchestown Festival when fourth to Marine Nationale in the two-mile championship there. He won the 2024 John Durkan at Punchestown and was narrowly beaten by Gaelic Warrior in the same race earlier this season.
Fact To File’s likely participation will put a focus on ground conditions at the Co Kildare track for their five-day extravaganza, which is worth a record €3.6 million in prize money.
Last year’s Punchestown Gold Cup, won by Galopin Des Champs, was run on ground officially described as “yielding”. That has been the going description for the race five times in the last 10 renewals of the race. On four occasions it has been “good to yielding”. Just once has soft appeared in the going, when Kemboy won in 2019 on officially “yielding to soft” ground.
Spillane’s Tower was taken out of the Cheltenham Gold Cup by the McManus team on the morning of the race due to ground conditions. Jimmy Mangan’s Grade One star is on course to join the ownership’s squad for the Aintree Grand National. Mangan memorably won the National in 2003 with Monty’s Pass.
“That’s a pretty firm thing for him, as long as the ground is okay for him,” Berry said. The McManus team also has the 2024 winner I Am Maximus as well as both Iroko and Jagwar prominent in ante-post betting for the Aintree spectacular. Berry also said the leading novice Oscar’s Brother has a choice of Aintree or lining up in the Boylesport’s Irish Grand National five days earlier.
The Cheltenham Festival winner Johnnywho is also in both Nationals, although Berry added: “He could end up with a lot of weight in the Irish National and he mightn’t get into the English one so he’s up in the air.”
The different challenge that the modern Aintree National represents was underlined again when Joseph O’Brien confirmed the race is being considered for his 2024 King George VI Chase winner Banbridge.
Third to Heart Wood in Cheltenham’s Ryanair earlier this month, Banbridge will return to Liverpool where he won the 2023 Manifesto Chase on the Mildmay circuit, but with the famous spruce fences in front of him.
“He came out of Cheltenham good. I’d say he could go to Aintree for the National,” O’Brien said. “I think he might. We’ll keep his options open and a decision will be made late. We’ll discuss it with Ronnie (Bartlett, owner) and see what he’d like to do. We’re leaning towards that at the moment. He loves the track and if it was three miles I’d fancy him.”
O’Brien is also likely to run Jordans in the National, while his stalwart Stayers’ Hurdle champion Home By The Lee could tackle the Liverpool Hurdle. Another O’Brien Grade One star, Solness, might tackle the famous National fences in the Topham handicap.
