James’s Gate

The first part our most backed treble for Thursday at Punchestown is the Willie Mullins trained James’s Gate, who will go off as the clear favourite (8/13) in the day’s final race. 

The lightly raced five-year-old was outclassed by Facile Vega in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham but stayed on well to finish in 3rd place. His only other outing to date was a win at Punchestown as recently as February.

James’s Gate has been backed in 79.74% of the betslips for the race through oddschecker, with Joyeux Machin a distant second taking 8.19%.

Klassical Dream

Klassical Dream was far from impressive in the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham last month; having been reluctant to line up at the start, Paul Townend managed to get him into contention jumping the last but he fell away badly up the hill dropping from 5th to 2nd. 

However, exactly six weeks on the eight-year-old is back in the same race at Punchestown (best price 5/4), where he will once again line up alongside Cheltenham hero Paisley Park (best price 7/1).

Sire Du Berlais, second in the Stayers’ at Cheltenham two years ago before struggling to 11th place in the Pertemps this year, is one of the Punchestown race’s other major players.

Klassical Dream has featured in 6.13% of all betslips for Thursday’s races at Punchestown through oddschecker and has 29.55% backing for the Stayers’ Hurdle (Concertista second most with 26.14%).

Sassy Yet Classy

Sassy Yet Classy (best price 15/2), an easy winner of the qualifier for the final of Pertemps series at the Cheltenham Festival over today’s C&D back in November, forms the final leg of our most backed treble for Day 3 at Punchestown.

Andy Holding said of her chances: "He could probably do with the ground being slightly softer, but as the clerk of the course has done a fantastic job with the surface up to now, Gordon Elliott’s mare may still be effective enough to make her presence felt at a track where she has a decent recent history."