Reaction to Punchestown Sunday including Dysart Dynamo and Bob Olinger

Danger of Dynamo burning out up Cheltenham hill

(Adam Houghton)

“This looks a horse,” summarised commentator Jerry Hannon as Dysart Dynamo spied the winning post in the Sky Bet Moscow Flyer Novices’ Hurdle, still full of running despite the fact he had raced keenly in the hands of Paul Townend for much of the race.

Star names such as Vautour, Douvan and Min had all cropped up in pre-race discussions – each of them previous winners of the Moscow Flyer for Willie Mullins – but this victory was achieved more in the style of another Closutton great in the shape of Un de Sceaux as Dysart Dynamo produced a relentless display of galloping from the front to run his rivals into the ground.

The official winning margin at the line was 19 lengths and for Dysart Dynamo to put that amount of distance between himself and the rest, seemingly at leisure, identifies him as a very bright prospect. To quote Hanlon, this looks a horse alright.

Now unbeaten in four starts, two bumpers and two novice hurdles, Dysart Dynamo has the choice of the Sky Bet Supreme and the Ballymore at the Cheltenham Festival, with the first-named contest appealing as perhaps the more suitable target given his all-out attack style of racing.

Of course, the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle will be no soft touch this year with another unbeaten pair trained by Nicky Henderson lying in wait, namely Constitution Hill and Jonbon.

Mullins himself can also call upon last year’s Champion Bumper winner Sir Gerhard, impressive on his hurdling debut at Leopardstown over Christmas, so there could be plenty of shuffling of cards in the coming weeks to dilute what otherwise promises to be a thrilling four-way fight.

Who has the ace in the pack for the Supreme as things stand?

As impressive as Dysart Dynamo was at Punchestown, Constitution Hill has ‘looked a horse’ and then some in winning both his starts to date at Sandown, including a 12-length demolition job in the Grade One Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle on the most recent occasion.

• Click here to back Constitution Hill for the Sky Bet Supreme

Crucially, the easy-going Constitution Hill looks more tactically versatile than Dysart Dynamo, who didn’t appear to give Townend much choice in how fast they went in the Moscow Flyer. Is there a danger of him being lit up in the cauldron of the Cheltenham Festival and doing too much too soon?

There are no such concerns with Constitution Hill, who looks a novice out of the very top drawer and, still, a worthy favourite for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

Dysart suddenly a massive player in Supreme

(Matt Brocklebank)

It looked hot before Sunday's developments but the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is now vying for ‘race of the week’ status at the 2022 Cheltenham Festival, alongside Shishkin versus Energumene in the Champion Chase which could look decidedly different too following the Clarence House Chase at Ascot.

Why so convinced that Willie Mullins’ latest Sky Bet Moscow Flyer winner will be rocking up in the Festival curtain-raiser? Well, that dates back to the trainer’s first Sporting Life column of the current season, in which he stated: “He’s a horse we’ll be going novice hurdling with and you’d imagine he’s more a Ballymore horse than a Sky Bet Supreme horse.”

Not Dysart Dynamo, of course, but Sir Gerhard the horse in question there and Mullins certainly won’t take much convincing to stick to what looked like Plan A with him after this performance from Dysart Dynamo, who showed bags of enthusiasm and speed to burn.

• Click here to back Dysart Dynamo for the Sky Bet Supreme

No doubt he's bred to get further - being a son of Westerner and half-brother to Dysart Diamond - but he left his rivals for dead, including Hammersmith and The Little Yank who came into the race with respective ratings of 120 and 122 yet were stuffed by 50 lengths-plus.

The runner-up, Gringo D’Aubrelle, was beaten 19 lengths by Dysart Dynamo having been beaten 10 and a half lengths by Stage Star in Newbury’s Challow Novices’ Hurdle at the end of December, so there's clearly substance to what looked a facile success.

It’s fair to say Nicky Henderson’s Tolworth winner Constitution Hill appears to have all the tools to deal with a typical Supreme field, but Dysart Dynamo - into 7/2 in places after initially being cut to 11/2 - could just be that giant sledgehammer who can smash the previously supposed ‘British dominance’ in this race to pieces.

Straightforward enough, but good to see from Bob

(Matt Brocklebank)

Horses like Bob Olinger do incredibly well to live up to expectations.

Beaten just once in his life, a dual Grade One winner and sent off at 1/3 for his chasing debut at Gowran in November, the horse won by six and a half lengths, and yet still some onlookers were out to crab him on the back of that.

They've surely been silenced following Sunday's success, though, the brilliant Bob sweeping aside a not unbacked Capodanno by the best part of five lengths after really reacting to Rachael Blackmore waking him up on the run to two-out.

Blackmore - reunited with the seven-year-old after missing out at Gowran - seemed content to let him measure most of the fences rather than having a proper cut at any, and the three in the back straight being missed on account of the low sun clearly made this less of a true fencing examination that it might have been, but I really liked how he weighed up the last.

He popped it neatly before swiftly engaging that special gear we already knew he possesses.

Capodanno's best trip is still seemingly up in the air but the runner-up is a class horse, of that there's no doubt, and it'll be interesting to see if he moves back up in distance in the spring, with trainer Willie Mullins clearly able to split up his Sporting Life Arkle troops by switching one or two for a shot at Bob Olinger in the Turners, should he wish to do so.

Any takers? Perhaps not, then.

Depending on where Galopin Des Champs and L'omme Presse end up in March, there could be a very small field for Henry De Bromhead's star novice to negotiate, in which case expectations will never have been higher.

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