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27th April 2017
05:27pm BST

The Punchestown festival needs this rivalry, because no matter how hard it tries, it will never quite match Cheltenham in terms of the quality and competitiveness of racing.
There is a certain magic attached to the Cotswolds. The age-old battle of Irish raiders invading the Pretsbury Park Racecourse in the middle of March is unrivalled. Any National Hunt trainer or owner from the British isles that tells you that Cheltenham isn’t their main priority at the start of the year is most likely not telling the truth.
There is no comparison between the number of Irish horses that make the trip to England in March and the lesser number of English horses that make the trip to Ireland in April. Why? Most of the top quality horses are peaked for the Cheltenham Festival. Another reason is the existence of the Aintree meeting in early April which may also be targeted prior to Punchestown.
This can be seen in the struggles of certain Cheltenham winning horses to replicate their March heroics in Kildare this week. Horses such as Un De Sceaux, who romped home in Cheltenham were unable to repeat this form. Other early March victors such as Penhill and Presenting Percy also came unstuck.
Punchestown often proves a bridge too far for many of these horses, and this only serves to underline the unbelievable nature of the Jessica Harrington trained Sizing John’s achievements who completed the Gold cup treble this year.
So sit back and savour the excitement as two of Ireland’s top handlers come head to head in the last two days of a thrilling jumps season, because who knows, these excitement levels mightn’t be exceeded until Cheltenham rolls around again next March.Explore more on these topics: