Punchestown Tips: Our Best Bets For Day 2 At The Festival

Punchestown Day 2 Tips:

• 16:15 Hurdle Series Final – Senior Chief: 11/4 with William Hill
• 17:20 Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle– Salvador Ziggy: 11/2 with Bet365
• 18:30 Champion Flat Race– It's For Me: 7/1 with Ladbrokes
• 19:45 Mares Flat Race– Fun Fun Fun: 7/4 with BoyleSports

The 2023 Punchestown Festival is underway and we’re looking forward to day two of the meeting. 

You won't get rich backing Galopin Des Champs to win the feature race on Wednesday, although many punters are looking beyond the favourites and instead hunting down some winners at a big price with online bookmakers.

In this article, we take a look through the Punchestown Day 2 racecard and identify a number of selections which should be able to go well at a nice price. 

16:15 - Connolly's RED MILLS Irish EBF Auction Hurdle Series Final

There doesn’t appear to be a great deal of depth to this series final and it looks worth siding with the most progressive horse in the field, Senior Chief, who is having just his fourth start over hurdles today.

Henry de Bromhead’s six-year-old is by no means the finished article, as he showed at Navan last time where he wasn’t always fluent at his hurdles and hung left on the run-in, but what he clearly does have is a good chunk of ability and a cracking attitude to the game.

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That narrow Navan success was only the third time he’d jumped hurdles in public so there is plenty of scope for improvement and we know he stays this trip extremely well, indeed he is likely to want further next season.

He doesn’t need much more to improve past the likes of Three Card Brag and Sandor Clegane, who both had hard races in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Peter Fahey has won the last two renewals of this contest, but his Rocco Bay needs to up her game by a considerable amount to have a say.  

17:20 - Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle

The step up to three miles might just suit Gaelic Warrior who is a short price with horse racing betting sites.

He is the obvious form pick after his second in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle and a Willie Mullins-trained favourite has won three of the last four editions of this Grade 1 contest. 

However, Gaelic Warrior has his kinks and this race has a nice each-way shape to it. The one to take the favourite on with is Salvador Ziggy who comes here relatively fresh having only raced twice this season.

His best form has all come on a sound surface so he deserves a huge amount of credit for a fine second in the Pertemps Final on soft ground last month.

It’s not unreasonable to think that he would have gone even closer had he not lost valuable momentum when short of room approaching the second last flight. 

Drying ground would increase his chances further, there is more to come from him over staying trips and he has finished first and second on his two previous outings at this track, so he has decent prospects of bustling the favourite up.

18:30 - Race & Stay At Punchestown Champion I.N.H. Flat Race

Champion bumper hero A Dream To Share is the obvious starting point here but many a favourite has been beaten in this over the last decade and this is no penalty kick for the McManus runner despite his short price with betting apps. 

Tullyhill could be anything and it would be no surprise if he were to extend his unbeaten run, but it might be worth giving another chance to It’s For Me who ruined his chance at Cheltenham by not settling early on.

In the circumstances, he deserves credit for even working his way into a competitive position in that contest and it would hardly be a huge shock if he were to fare a good deal better if proving more tractable in the early sections of this race.

He is yet to prove he goes right-handed but this is only his third start under rules and that hugely impressive Navan success still lives in the memory. He’s too good to be overlooked here.

19:45 - Weatherbys General Stud Book Irish EBF Mares Flat Race

Fun Fun Fun was arguably the most disappointing of any runner to contest the champion bumper at Cheltenham but that’s in no small part because of the incredible promise she showed in winning a Grade 2 mares’ event at Leopardstown (Fancy Girl beaten around 12 lengths in fourth) by nine and a half lengths on her second start.

The five-year-old never really threatened to get involved from off the pace in the champion bumper but she may well have not enjoyed the softest ground she had raced on in her short career, while she also drops back into female only company here.

She won on debut at Sligo so we know she goes well right-handed and, if conditions do start to dry out at Punchestown by Wednesday evening, then we might just get to see the real Fun Fun Fun, who remains a hugely exciting prospects for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.