ONE of the aims of any big event or stage show is to send the audience home wanting more.

Both Leopardstown and Cheltenham must have been highly pleased in that regard after the 2026 DRF.

After all the stress of the week, the two days provided all that could have been desired. And the great thing was, that in most instances, it confused things as much as clarified them going on the Cheltenham where re-matches are eagerly awaited.

Only one odds-on favourite won - Romeo Coolio (4/9). And, far from making him a Festival banker, no one knows where he is going to run in March.

There were three other winning favourites in the Grade 1s, Talk The Talk, Narcisco Has and Doctor Steinberg. Honours were shared, Mullins five Grade 1s, Elliott two and Joseph O’Brien, never to be ignored at a jumping Grade 1 table, taking one.

Many of the beaten will have expectations of doing better on better ground at Cheltenham. You would not write off Marine Nationale, Ballyfad, King Rasko Grey, Final Demand, Gaelic Warrior, Lossiemouth, or even perhaps Galopin Des Champs from still being on the winning roll of honour at Cheltenham.

And questions can still be found for Brighterdaysahead, Majborough and Fact To File to answer.

Eye-catcher

One decisive winner was Narcisco Has, dominant in the juvenile hurdle. Selma De Vary was the eye-catcher for most people. The filly is well experienced having had three Auteuil runs, the last a win in November. She also ran twice on the flat last winter. She wore a hood on Monday and made a move turning in and stayed on. I think she is quite short at 7/1 for the Triumph, which is a different type of race.

Majborough fans got their day of glory for keeping the faith (Yeh!). Marine Nationale’s connections are correct in arguing Cheltenham will be more suitable conditions to their horse, but who could argue that Majborough will also perform just as well on better going?

All the Lossiemouth v Brighterdaysahead round three could come to nothing if the Mullins mare is sent - again - to the Mares Hurdle. Did the Champion Hurdle last year not show fortune favours the brave? Better conditions in March should suit her and she is not slow for all of her two and a half mile wins.

She looked on the back foot early on Sunday and her Cheltenham form is so much better than Brighterdaysahead. She is seven this year, go on, give her the chance.

Fact To File’s dominant win in the Paddy Power Gold Cup is harder to put in context. The form of the Savills Chase got a bit of a dumping on different ground. And that testing ground made Fact To File’s comprehensive win even more curious, based on previous form. Despite his Brown Advisory win, many have doubts on him over the Gold Cup distance, for all that he should surely take his chance in it. The Gold Cup is a big step up from trying to match Marine Nationale in last year’s William Hill Champion Chase at Punchestown, but as a Ryanair winner, he deserves a crack at the Gold Cup. It’s the same path taken by Gold Cup winners Imperial Commander and Don Cossack.

Regressed

Has Galopin Des Champs regressed to only manage to beat Firefox a neck? The Mullins camp still seems optimistic that he can do better.

Gaelic Warrior pulls too hard for a staying chaser. If the Riccis want a Cheltenham winner, the Ryanair might be best, ridden as he was in the John Durkan. It looks like Jonbon and Banbridge are his biggest rivals.

With no intermediate novice chase, those two chases have more question marks. Kopek Des Bordes was absent but reappeared to school at Punchestown on Wednesday, so it’s onwards with just one race under his belt. Final Demand’s lack lustre display leaves questions and he was beaten at the Festival last year and then looked even better at Punchestown. The now three miles and one furlong of the Brown Advisory is a big question for Romeo Coolio, as is a tough season before the Festival. Yet he is by an Ascot Gold Cup winner in Kayf Tara and his dam sire Kapgarde got the Gold Cup winner A Plus Tard. It’s hard to see him living with a full force Kopek. There’s still a few longer-priced horses like Salvador Mundi to consider too.

And then to the novice hurdles - the Supreme Novices’ looking, in a much-used racing phrase, an absolute cracker.

Willie Mullins sent out the favourite or joint favourite every year since 2016, which is an amazing fact considering this year King Rasko Grey is the shortest at around 14s. From 2016, Min, Melon, Getabird, Klassical Dream (the longest priced at 6/1), Asterion Forlonge, Appreciate It, Dysart Dynamo, Facile Vega, Tullyhill and Kopek Des Bordes led the Mullins team into battle with varying degrees of success. Can we dismiss him this year?

Old Park Star remains favourite, El Cairos is undoubtedly talented, Mydaddypaddy was the early season favourite, Talk The Talk looks very classy with a telling turn of foot and was one of few horses who found speed from the last at Leopardstown

With over four weeks to D-Day, there will be a few departures yet among the favourites, but it looks set to be one of the more open and intriguing Festivals in quite a while.

IT was likely that there were a few Victor Meldrew utterances when the verdict from the IHRB Referrals Committee became public this week from the Redwood Queen inquiry. “We are unable to identify any motivation to justify him deliberately dismounting from the horse,” was the verdict of the incident.

There were elements in the defence that could not be disputed, the jockey’s record, the fact that he rides with just his toes in the irons. You can of course find evidence in other cases where that “unwritten rule”, you “don’t bail out” wasn’t acknowledged. Jockeys have been found guilty. If you are used to hitting the ground, what’s another one, one could argue?

But we’ve seen too many examples of the unpredictability of horses, no more so than in a brilliant Champion Hurdle winner having three Fs after his name. Many riders recover from worse errors than the Byrnes one and opinions will still be divided whether that, “bump in the backside” caused him to be dislodged sideways. Some who went to the hearing suspecting foul play were swayed after hearing all the evidence. It’s nigh impossible to prove that something involving speed and horses was a delibrate act rather than looking like one.