KPMG Champion Novice Hurdle
Grade 1, Punchestown 16:15 €125,000 guaranteed 5yo plus 2m 100y, Class 1
Tweet Tuesday 29th April 2025

1 Irancy 18/1
2 Salvator Mundi 10/3
3 Karbau 22/1
6 ran Distances: 9l, 3l, 19l
Time: 4m 1.60s (slow by 8.60s)

Oh ....

𝐊𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐤 𝐃𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐬 only fourth behind stablemate 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 in the @KPMG Champion Novice Hurdle @Punchestownrace 🟢🟡🟢 pic.twitter.com/ATs66CvKk3

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 29, 2025

The opening Grade 1 of the Punchestown Festival may have gone the way of Willie Mullins, but not in the order punters—or perhaps even the yard—had envisaged, as Irancy delivered a telling blow to more fancied stablemates.

Kopek Des Bordes, the Supreme Novices’ winner and sent off at a prohibitive 30/100, was expected to saunter home in what looked a two-horse affair on paper, with Aintree hero Salvador Mundi the only runner trading within shouting distance at 10/3.

That duo took up their expected roles at the head of affairs, with Kopek Des Bordes never jumping with much fluency and Salvador Mundi edging ahead as they rolled through halfway. It looked set to develop into a straight shootout between the pair—but appearances, as ever in racing, can deceive.

Lurking in the wings were Irancy and Karbau, with Mark Walsh sitting quietly on the former as the race took a dramatic turn at the second last. A laboured jump from the favourite saw him swiftly retreat to fourth, and suddenly it was clear this would not be a coronation, but a coup.

Irancy, travelling conspicuously well, swept past his stablemates approaching the last, and with Walsh motionless in the saddle, coasted clear to win by a widening nine lengths, leaving Salvador Mundi and Karbau to scrap for the minor medals.

“Fair play to Willie,” said Walsh afterwards. “This lad’s had his share of problems, but he’s always had the engine. Once the others went on, I let him find his rhythm, and they came back to me when it mattered. He might’ve hit the front too soon—he started pricking his ears—but he was full of running at the line.”

Mullins, who remarkably saddled the first four home, reflected: “We took all the headgear off Salvador Mundi and he jumped better—but he just went too hard. Paul [Townend] knows how good he is and didn’t want to let him go, but it told late.

“As for Irancy, he had a setback after his last run here which in hindsight might’ve been a blessing—he came in fresh and showed what he can do. Kopek Des Bordes? Probably had too much of a break after Cheltenham. I looked at him in the ring and thought: he's carrying a bit of condition, and it showed.”

In a race where the script was written in Closutton ink, it was the least-heralded name that rose to the occasion—a reminder that in a yard as deep as Mullins’, even the fourth string can gallop like the first.

Champion Novice Hurdle
€125,000 guaranteed, 5yo plus, 2m 100y, Class 1
6 ran
Going: Yielding

POS. DIST HORSE AGE WGT TRAINER JOCKEY SP
1    Irancy 7 11-12 W P Mullins Mark Walsh 18/1
2 9 Salvator Mundi 5 11-12 W P Mullins Mr P W Mullins 100/30
3 3 Karbau 5 11-12 W P Mullins Danny Mullins 22/1
4 19 Kopek Des Bordes 5 11-12 W P Mullins Paul Townend 30/100F
5 52 Fleetfoot 5 11-12 J S Bolger Keith Donoghue 150/1
PU Whinney Hill 5 11-12 Gordon Elliott Sam Ewing 100/1

Past Results: