Check out our columnist on his fascinating runner in France on Sunday, who Rachael Blackmore heads over to ride.
It’s the calm before the storm with just one runner this weekend – and it’s a different one.
Your Eyes Only goes to Auteuil for a Listed hurdle which is for three-year-old fillies who have never raced over hurdles before.
It’s a €60,000 race – it must be one of the richest maiden hurdles anywhere in the world.
We said we’d have a crack at it and Rachael Blackmore is going over to ride her.
Obviously we’ve no idea where she’s going to fit in with the French horses given there’s no form to go on, it’s an experiment to see how we go on.
She’s working well and I’m very pleased with her jumping and happy to see how it works out.
If she ran well it would open up the possibility of heading back to Auteuil for some of the other valuable races in the summer.
- Don't miss Willie's exclusive daily column for the Punchestown Festival - only on sportinglife.com.
He'll have a horse-by-horse guide to a star-studded team that will include a host of Cheltenham Festival winners including Sir Gerhard, Energumene and Allaho.