Donn McClean is back with his tipping preview for day two of the Punchestown Festival and he has two bets including a Gordon Elliott-trained handicapper.
Donn's Best Bets
Al Boum Photo (6.05 Punchestown)
Ben Dundee (7.10 Punchestown)
So, Kemboy or Al Boum Photo? You have to pick one.
It is great that they are both here. It is great that they are set to take each other on, despite the fact that they are both trained by Willie Mullins. They are owned by different people, and it is the correct race for both horses. There is no point in wrapping them up when there is a €300,000 Coral Punchestown Gold Cup up for grabs.
Kemboy is the Supreme Racing Club’s horse. He won the novices’ handicap chase at this meeting last year off a mark of 147, and he has kicked on this season. He won the Clonmel Oil Chase and the Savills Chase and, after a blip in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, he won the Betway Bowl.
Al Boum Photo, owned by Joe and Marie Donnelly, has raced just twice this season. He won the Savills Chase at Tramore on New Year’s Day on his seasonal debut. He missed an intended engagement in the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown in February because of the ground, but it didn’t halt his forward march. He went to Cheltenham in March and won the Gold Cup.
This pair have lots in common. They are both top class staying chasers, proven at the top level, and they both have youth on their side. Both horses are seven years old. We may not have seen the best of either yet.
The market and the handicapper are struggling to split them. The handicapper has them just 1lb apart, Al Boum Photo 175, Kemboy 174, while the market has just one-eighth of a point in it. 6/4 Kemboy, 13/8 Al Boum Photo. Both have good course form and neither should have an excuse on the ground. It is perfectly poised.
Bellshill could be a player. Another stable companion, it didn’t happen for the King’s Theatre gelding at Cheltenham, but he should be much happier at Punchestown. He is three for three here, at this meeting: a Champion Bumper, a Grade 1 three-mile novices’ hurdle and a Punchestown Gold Cup. In this race last year, he dug deep to beat Djakadam, the pair of them coming eight lengths clear of Road To Respect.
Monalee is not out of place in the line-up either. Henry de Bromhead’s horse is another with a fine Punchestown record: 2141F, and the F could have been a 1 had he not come down at the second last fence when in front in last year’s Growise Chase. He has to step up, he has 11lb to find on official ratings, but there is a big performance in him, and a flat three miles like this one could be optimal.
That said, it is correct that the top two are clear in the market. And of the two, with the rain that fell yesterday in his favour, and at a slightly bigger price, Al Boum Photo is the more attractive betting proposition.
Later in the day, Ben Dundee could run well in the Guinness Handicap Chase. Gordon Elliott’s horse was very good as he embarked on his chasing career this season. A close-up third behind his stable companion Delta Work in a beginners’ chase at Down Royal in November, he stepped up on that next time when he won a beginners’ chase over today’s course and distance.
Chris Jones’ horse’s jumping was good that day, and he won well from subsequent Leopardstown Chase winner Whisperinthebreeze, with last year’s Kim Muir runner-up Mall Dini back in third. It was a strong beginners’ chase.
He was a little disappointing in three runs after that, but he was much better last time in the Close Brothers Chase at Cheltenham, when he finished third behind A Plus Tard. He had no answer to the winner’s finishing surge in the home straight that day, but he travelled well to the home turn, and he kept on well over the last two fences.
He gets to race off an Irish handicap rating of 138 today, which is 3lb lower than the British mark off which he raced at Cheltenham, and it is just 3lb higher than his peak Irish rating over hurdles. He is only seven and he has raced just six times over fences, so he has the potential to go higher than that mark now. He has won two of his five races at the track and, in a highly competitive handicap, he could go well.
