GRADE 1s in November don’t come much better than Sunday’s John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase (3.00).

In the line-up are seven individual top-level winners, who have won a combined total of 16 Grade 1 contests, four Cheltenham Festival winners, including the reigning Gold Cup and Ryanair Chase champions, as well as the small matter of the 2024 and 2025 Grand National heroes. The winners of the last two renewals of the John Durkan are back in town for a rematch of 12 months ago. It has all the makings of an early-season belter.

Willie Mullins holds the key, responsible for seven of the 11-strong field, including the top two in the betting, Fact To File and Gaelic Warrior. That pair already top the ante-post market for next month’s King George VI Chase at Kempton.

We’re all set to learn plenty about the readiness of this elite group of staying chasers, but one man who already knows more than most about the big-race favourite is Donnchadh Doyle.

The shrewd point-to-point handler in Co Wexford expertly produced Fact To File to win at the first time of asking between the flags at Belharbour in February 2022, later selling the Poliglote gelding privately to race in the colours of J.P. McManus. It turned out to be quite the piece of point-to-point form on the day, with Fact To File beating subsequent Supreme Novices’ Hurdle fourth Asian Master by six lengths.

“From word go, he was always a lovely horse,” Doyle told The Irish Field. He paid €40,000 for the now dual-Cheltenham Festival winner as a yearling in the 2018 Arqana Deauville Autumn Mixed Sale.

“He was the type of one that would show you plenty at home, a smart boy. We got him out of France; Ryan Mahon actually bought him for us there. In terms of scope, you could see he was a big, lovely lad who did everything very smart with his jumping.”

High regard

A tally of four Grade 1 wins has helped the strapping eight-year-old soar to an official rating of 173. That leaves him only 3lb behind Galopin Des Champs and Inothewayurthinkin as the third highest-rated chaser in Britain or Ireland. Doyle says it is no surprise that the former Champion Bumper runner-up has gone on to scale major heights.

“We always held him in very high regard as a young horse - we thought an awful lot of him,” said Doyle, who has won with four of his 15 point-to-point runners so far this season.

“We did expect him to go and do something fancy on the track. What he put up in the Ryanair Chase last year was just mighty. It was unreal. It had to be the performance of the week at Cheltenham.

“I’d say it was just one run too many for him at Punchestown [on his last start when down the field in the Champion Chase]. That can always happen to any horse at the end of a season.

“The John Durkan is a proper race this weekend, isn’t it? You’d have to be delighted that we’re able to see them all turn up and take each other on.”

Many have wondered whether Fact To File could step out in distance to one day tackle the Cheltenham Gold Cup trip. Does Doyle reckon he’d be capable of staying that far?

“I always thought he was a dour stayer. Sure didn’t Willie start him off in a two-and-a-half-mile bumper on his first start for him at Leopardstown that Christmas?” Doyle reasoned.

“He dropped him back in trip afterwards, but the word up there early on seemed to be that he was very nice, but he mightn’t be the quickest horse.

“I always thought he was a proper three-miler, or even a bit further with it.”

Flagbearer

He adds: “It’s a dream to think of being connected with any type of Gold Cup horse. To see this lad go on to do what he’s been doing on the track, it’s fantastic. No question, it’s a lot easier to sell the next nice horse you have when one like him is flying the flag for everyone.

“We haven’t many runners at the moment but there’s a nice bunch of three-year-olds coming. Hopefully we’ll find another couple of superstars, if they can pop up.”

Doyle also has another of his graduates to look forward to in Grade 1 company this weekend, last season’s Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase second Stellar Story, who is a rare Irish-trained runner in the Betfair Chase (3.00) at Haydock.

“If the ground is soft, he can be very smart and once his jumping holds up, he seems to gallop all day,” Doyle said of the 2024 Albert Bartlett winner.

“I think he should run a big race. He mightn’t have enough experience to win a race like that against plenty of established horses, but hopefully he’ll give a good account.”