Timeform's Punchestown Tips Day Two, Wednesday

Tipping / Billy Nash / 29 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

Timeform's Billy Nash brings you four recommendations for Day 2 of the Punchestown Festival on Wednesday.

Punchestown 3:45 - Place Back - Wright Flyer

That Wright Flyer is still pretty well handicapped is in little doubt, given that he gets to go in the opener at Punchestown off the same mark as when beaten only narrowly at Tipperary 6 days ago. But that he is a rather tricky customer and difficult to win with also seems plain. He has hung on a couple of occasions and looked all over the winner at Tipperary when taking it up before two out only to do little and get caught. Expect him to travel on the bridle for a long way and be produced even later in this. A win bet makes some appeal, but a place bet makes even more in mind of the potential for trouble in running that there is in a 25-runner race for inexperienced riders.

Punchestown 4:20 - Win lay - Coffee Tea Or Me

Coffee Tea Or Me is likely to go off quite short for this 2m juvenile hurdle but looks to have a couple of chinks in his armour regarding his jumping and his stamina. The former let him down in the closing stages of his defeat by The Fist of God in a Grade 3 at Fairyhouse earlier in the month, while the latter proved his undoing when tried at 1½m on the Flat and possibly when encountering soft ground on his first start over hurdles. Coffee Tea Or Me is good enough to get placed regardless, but the likes of Jettymarc and Manor Park, to name but two, should make it difficult for him to win if he underperforms even slightly.

Punchestown 4:55 - Win Back - The Midnight Club

Willie Mullins has a strong hand in the 3m novice hurdle with Palace Merano and The Midnight Club. While the former is on a hat-trick and partnered by Ruby Walsh, it is the latter that looks the one they all have to beat, having finished an excellent third at the Cheltenham Festival last time. Emmett Mullins takes the ride, but then again he took the ride at Cheltenham (where he could not claim) and for the gelding's two previous wins over hurdles, so it seems to be a sensible case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it". The Cheltenham form has not worked out especially well, but The Midnight Club has had longer to recover from a race that was run in testing conditions than did those that turned up at Aintree. He can show the benefit here.

Punchestown 5:30 - Place Lay - Sicilian Secret

The presence of the mighty Dunguib in the Champion Bumper means that the gelding's nine rivals may find themselves fighting it out for a minor place at best. That looks like being tough enough as it is, and there are good reasons to think that Sicilian Secret may find it too tall an order again. The Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old went off third-favourite at Cheltenham but got walloped behind Dunguib, in the process showing a headstrong tendency that could well prove his undoing in today's conditions. Sicilian Secret will probably be alright further down the line, but he is going to need to be a bit more than that just to make the first three in this and a place lay is advised.

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