PUNCHESTOWN had another great week and the action on track was enhanced by the stars Il Etait Temps, Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth marking themselves out as the outstanding jumping performers.

It was a proper season finale and added to amazing months for jump racing and for Willie Mullins, who also took the Grand National with I Am Maximus, all four horses proving outstanding in their respective races. All four will hopefully be back ready and able for next season.

Although he was absent this week, Home By The Lee is also the undisputed champion stayer, but Bob Olinger got a deserves last hour of glory.

The novice scene is much less definite. How do we find a challenger for Lossiemouth? The New Lion won’t be back, she’s beaten Brighterdaysahead and, in a season where the Irish novice hurdlers were not as good as usual, what do we take from Cheltenham winners Old Park Star, King Rasko Grey and Johnny’s Jury when Aintree gave us Storming George, Zeus Power and Bossman Jack? Early season winners Talk The Talk and El Cairos seem to have been overtaken and Punchestown then gave us Eachtotheirown and King Rasko just held on.

The novice chases also had a few spanners in the works, with the ill-fated Gold Dancer and Mirabad at Aintree and Western Fold and Salvator Mundi coming to the fore at Punchestown. But Kopek, Lulamba and Salvator are not too unreliable! It’s great to have proper star horses to look forward to next season, but these next generation have still to sort themselves into strong opposition.

A word too for the riders, Darragh O’Keeffe had a great season, Paul Townend is king, but Donagh Meyler was probably one of the best performers all season. It was hard to believe in his recent interview with us that 28 winners in 2024/25 was his best season.

Ballydoyle v Godolphin again?

AFTER all the Albert in, Albert out saga over the last month, the Ballydoyle representative in the first classic of the season is the horse who was most obvious.

Gstaad, who won the Coventry Stakes on good to firm going at Royal Ascot and who ran in four further Group 1s at two.

And not only is he in, he’s now favourite for the 2000 Guineas.

The Dewhurst form has stood up and, with Gewan sadly gone, Gstaad is the joint-top-rated two-year-old, along with stable companion Puerto Rico who was a slower-maturing two-year-old and might prefer softer ground. He took four runs to get off the mark and won his two Group 1s on softer ground than he will get at Newmarket.

It looks very like a Ballydoyle/Godolphin battle again, with Distant Storm looking the number one for the royal blues.

Both yards are slow enough to find their best three-year-olds. Ballydoyle had runners beaten in the Epsom Trial and a listed race in France earlier in the week and the stable are just hit and miss with returning three-year-olds.

The top three in the betting are drawn across the track, stalls two, seven and then 15 for Bow Echo, who was mid-week favourite.

Night Of Thunder is represented by four runners, but there are a lot of sprint-bred colts with Dandy Man, Starman, Space Blues and Starspangledbanner. But, on this fast ground, one that looks a bit too big is Power Blue.

He was a Group 1-winning two-year-old over six furlongs and, while he might not stay, he has a chance on this ground and his second over seven furlongs on good to yielding going at Leopardstown was a good run.

At 50/1 in places, he could sneak an each-way reward.

Let it be, let it be

THIS post by RTE’s sports writer caught my attention this week.

Greg Allen@gregallenRTE

That Vafaei V Trump Quarterfinal was a simply super piece of sport.

Love the fact that technology doesn’t affect snooker. It’s the same game as it has been for a century & from when Alex Higgins changed its popularity & image in 1972.

And that does hold a lot of value, it’s amazing in a world of increased technology, how one sport stays the same. Nothing has changed in decades.

In racing, we get so much more information and data in recent years, which is certainly welcome and very useful for analysis. The naked eye can lie.

There are much more important things currently affecting racing, but it was extremely annoying again to see the racing channels show a lot of the Sandown meeting from the air, particularly the iconic racing shot of the field rounding the bend and spreading out on the run to the Pond Fence, something we have watched for 50 years or more. From the air, it’s simply another fence, you lose some of the drama.

Thankfully, we were spared too many angles from the air at Punchestown (a bank doesn’t look like a bank from the air!) and the side-on shots missed little of the action.

How much is too much racing?

ATTENDING Punchestown this week for the Ladbrokes Gold Cup, it did seem like a long wait through a couple of handicaps and the big bumper until the big race of the day. And, when you wanted to bask a bit in the achievement by Gaelic Warrior, it was almost home time.

Opinions differ on where to place the best races of the day to maximise interest, in betting and TV coverage, Punchestown having a lot less quality per day to distribute than say Cheltenham or Aintree.

If you are in for the long haul, there are 14 races on the Churchill Downs Kentucky Derby card, with just two low-key races after the Derby this evening, but it is a stand alone event of the year. Hong Kong’s Champions’ day with three Group 1s interspersed through the card, had 11 races last Sunday.

The Curragh got some criticism last year for having a nine-race Irish Derby card with three races after the Derby, to fit in with World Pool needs. Newmarket today also have a nine-race 2000 Guineas card with four handicaps adding to the World Pool, taking place after the Guineas run at 3.35pm.

The last race being a rather late 5.55pm. That does seem a very long spell from the 1.10pm afternoon start.

More Daryz please

THE winning return of the Arc winner Daryz was a welcome sight last week, as were the comments of the Aga Khan’s racing manager.

“It’s important for us to show breeders that he’s versatile. He’s also a horse who needs to run regularly, almost every month. He’s better when he’s busy.”

When we see less and less of the jumping stars, this was great to hear. More please!

Dominic King@DKingTelegraph

If you have just watched the Punchestown Gold Cup, there is a valid argument to say Gaelic Warrior has just proven himself to be the most talented chaser over 3 miles since Kauto Star. Galopin Des Champs was relentless. The ability Gaelic Warrior has got is staggering!

Tim O Driscoll@timodriscoll2

What a day!! I’ve never ever got such a buzz. The hangover is real this morning but thanks to Barry, Roger, Garrett, Finny & Maria.

@RogerLoughran5 you delivered as you said way back. Special to have my close friend @swflanagan7 on board. This video will haunt me but I don’t care!

Michael Teeney Racing@mteeneysport

That was outstanding from Il Etait Temps, he’s the main man over 2m for a while now surely.