Punchestown Racecourse

racing_news/

Wadham and Lavelle Send Star Aintree Winners to Punchestown
23/04/09

Trainers Lucy Wadham and Emma Lavelle today confirmed their impressive Aintree winners El Dancer and Bouggler on course for next week’s Punchestown Festival.

Wadham is confident that El Dancer will be a force to be reckoned with in the €100,000 Grade One Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle (4.20pm) over two miles on the opening day of the Punchestown Festival, Tuesday, April 28.

The Newmarket handler revealed today: “El Dancer is all set for the Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle. He has been in good nick since Aintree and we are very happy with him.”

The five-year-old landed the Grade Two Top Novices’ Hurdle at Liverpool on April 3, finishing with a strong run to defeat Cheltenham Festival winner American Trilogy by a neck.

Wadham said: “American Trilogy was giving us weight at Aintree but our horse won despite himself. He pulled too hard early on, then got knocked back in the race with a slow jump and stayed on from an almost impossible position.

“He is still learning and a little bit green at his hurdles. He jumps a little bit big but he is obviously improving with every run.”

Wadham has already enjoyed Punchestown Festival success thanks to the top-class mare United, who triumphed in the 2005 Grade One Ballymore Champion Four Year Old Hurdle. Like his illustrious stablemate, El Dancer began his career on the Flat in Germany and such was the gelding’s potential that connections paid 165,000 guineas for him at Tattersalls in October, 2008.

The trainer reported: “When we took United to Punchestown, we went with hope more than confidence - with El Dancer, we are going with a bit more confidence. He is a very nice horse and we think he has a huge future, both over fences as well as hurdles.

“We had him entered at the Cheltenham Festival but we did not feel he had the experience to go there - we were delayed by the weather. He was a bit slow getting the hang of jumping and then the weather closed in so we struggled to get the first couple of runs into him. He has always demonstrated he is a very nice horse at home and he cost a lot of money. He had quite good form on the Flat and, fortunately, it looks like he is going to make up into a really nice jumper.

”We want the rain to arrive - so long as it is good ground or softer, he will go to Punchestown. A little bit of rain would be ideal because he does not mind how soft it gets.”

Meanwhile, Andover trainer Emma Lavelle is looking forward to pitching her high-class novice Bouggler into the Punchestown fray. The four-year-old is unbeaten in two starts over hurdles, latterly rallying gamely to capture the Grade Two John Smith’s Mersey Novices’ Hurdle by a head from Copper Bleu at Aintree on April 4.

Bouggler, a winner on the Flat at Newcastle last year for previous trainer Julie Camacho, bids to continue his rapid progress in the €90,000 Grade One Land Rover Champion Novice Hurdle (6.05pm) over two and a half miles on Friday, May 1.

Lavelle revealed this morning: “Bouggler seems really fresh and well since Aintree. He has kept his condition, so the plan is to go to Punchestown with him. He has only had two runs over jumps this season but he had a break before coming to us off the Flat, so hopefully he will be fine to go there.

“I would be hopeful he is continuing to improve and that definitely stands him in good stead against some of the best of the novice hurdlers. He seems a pretty straightforward horse, so if he travels well and settles in, I would be looking for him to run a really good race.”

Bouggler showed a redoubtable willingness in rallying to victory against more experienced rivals at Aintree last time and Lavelle believes the grounding he received on the Flat has proven beneficial.

She commented: “He had a few runs on the Flat, so it is not as if he was a National Hunt horse with only one run under his belt before going to Aintree. He has been on a steep learning curve but everything we have asked him so far he has delivered. He seems to be terribly honest and, in fairness, he should be getting better.

“He is a big horse and I would say that as a three-year-old on the Flat he was probably quite immature. He won on the Flat and the Camachos did a fantastic job with him without giving him a hard time before he had matured. He came to me looking tremendous and he obviously has the right brain for the job - he wants to do it and he is a galloper.

“He has a little bit of knee action so he would not want the ground too quick. His form on the Flat suggests that he prefers to get his toe in the ground so he would be better off handling a little bit of cut.”

SELECT TEAM FOR KING

Trainer Alan King is another planning a raid on next week’s Punchestown Festival with a team that looks set to include Silk Hall in the Grade One Ballymore Champion Four Year Old Hurdle on Saturday, May 2 and Trenchant in the previous day’s Grade One Land Rover Champion Novice Hurdle

“I think Trenchant is going for the two and a half miler, then on Saturday, Silk Hall is going for the four-year-old race,” King told At The Races. “Silk Hall is a much better horse on quick ground and it was just a bit slow for him at Aintree. He’s one that I wouldn’t mind it drying up for at Punchestown.”

The five-day Irish National Hunt Festival at Punchestown runs from Tuesday, April 28, to Saturday, May 2.