Punchestown Festival Day 1 preview

The first day of this week’s Punchestown Festival arrives on Tuesday with a cracking eight-race card, where three Grade 1s will take centre stage with the feature race of the opening day is the Champion Chase at 6.05.

Racing kicks off at 2.30pm with the three-mile cross country chase before the card comes to a close at 6.35pm with the two-mile bumper, but there is plenty of top quality action sandwiched in between.

Read below for a full rundown of the day one card at Punchestown courtesy of Betano, who provided all the latest horse racing odds throughout the season.

Up first on Tuesday as the cross country chase and nine runners are set to line up for the three-mile trip (2.30). Willitgoahead looks to be the one to side with in the opener, down in Grade here and wearing first-time cheekpieces. He was third in the Foxhunters in 2025 but pulled up in the Hunters’ Chase back in March. This is not as tough an ask, however, so he could go well for trainer Gordon Elliott to get his week off to a good start.

Race two on day one (3.05) is a very big-field handicap where as many as 25 runners could be on the start line. It’s a very competitive renewal once again and Powerful is the one taken to get back to winning ways for trainer Jessica Harrington, a two-time winner at this track including on his penultimate start, but was eighth last time out at Fairyhouse though a line can certainly be struck through that run.

The Listed Kilashee Hotel Handicap is race three of the afternoon (3.40) and all-conquering trainer Willie Mullins could pick up his first winner of the week with Kalix Delabarriere, a ready winner of an 18-runner Listed handicap 24 days ago and has to shoulder a 10lb hike in the weights for that success but has beaten a few of his rivals who are lining up again. British raider Khrisma for the Nicky Henderson yard rates a massive danger under jockey Harry Cobden, riding in the JP McManus silks, twice a winner this season and was also second in a novice hurdle at this Festival last season.

The first Grade 1 of the day and the Festival marks race four on day one with the Champion Novice Hurdle (4.15) and it looks a belter. Le Labo for the in-form Joseph O’Brien yard could well be worth a look at, stepping up in Grade having beaten the re-opposing Blake seven weeks ago and could well have won the race before but for a fall at Cork. El Cairos rates a massive danger for the Gordon Elliott yard, fifth in the Supreme at Cheltenham in March.

The Champion Novice Chase Grade 1 follows hot on the heels at 4.50 with ten runners set to line up for the three-mile contest. It’s tough to look past Kitzbuhel here for the Mullins team, a winner of the Brown Advisory at Cheltenham and was a back-to-back winner before that too including the Kauto Star at Kempton so could bag a third Grade 1 win.

A two-mile bumper is up next at 5.25 and this is a very hot renewal of the valuable race which is worth €60,000 to the winner. Abbeyglen is a half-brother to a two-time bumper winner and makes plenty of appeal for trainer Martin Brassil on debut to stop the Mullins/Elliott domination of this race, though Closutton man Mullins does have another intriguing prospect with Altesse Du Luy, a €145,000 No Risk At All filly whose dam was a winner in France so has to be taken seriously.

The third and final Grade 1 of the opening day is the Champion Chase at 6.05 and Mullins has four of the five runners in this race. The pick of them is likely to be Majborough, who needs to recover from a shoddy jumping effort in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham but the belting win in the Dublin Chase at Leopardstown back in February means anywhere close to repeating that should see him go well. Stablemate Il Etait Temps will be bang in there having taken advantage of Majborough’s troubles in the Champion Chase to win, while the only non-Mullins runner in the race, Marine Nationale, is fresh having not ran at Cheltenham, and is very much a top chaser in his own right.

Finally, the card comes to a close at 6.35 with the second bumper of the day and preference in the finale heads the way of Mr Ragstone, a half-brother to numerous winners including the top class chaser Black Corton who has plenty of appeal on paper heading into this card-closer.

Punchestown selections - Tuesday 

2.30 - Willitgoahead 

3.05 - Powerful 

3.40 - Kalix Delabarriere 

4.15 - Le Labo 

4.50 - Kitzbuhel 

5.25 - Abbeyglen 

6.05 - Majborough 

6.35 - Mr Ragstone