Teahupoo has shot at becoming first horse in 25 years to pull off Cheltenham-Punchestown Stayers double

Yet more rain would be a party pooper for almost everyone else at Thursday’s Punchestown festival although a hearty welcome could come from the Teahupoo camp.

Their mud-loving Cheltenham champion has a shot at bridging a rare 25-year gap in the €300,000 Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle.

Pulling off the Cheltenham-Punchestown festival double is a relatively regular occurrence in most championship events here but not the Stayers division.

Anzum in 1999 is the last horse to win at Cheltenham and follow up it in the Punchestown equivalent. He was ridden by a young Richard Johnson who has been retired three years now after a marathon career.

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Admittedly it’s a pattern skewed by how many top names didn’t try in the first place. Double Cheltenham Styers champions Baracouda and Ingles Drever never raced in Ireland. Neither did the ultimate Stayers star, Big Buck’s.

Quevega dominated the Punchestown leg for four years between 2010 and 2013 but exerted even greater control over a different Cheltenham contest, landing the Mares Hurdle a record six times in a row.

More recently though top-notch performers such as Penhill (2018) and Nichols Canyon (2017) have come up just short of the double. Sire Du Beralais was third a year ago.

Teahupoo looked a better than average winner of the Cheltenham crown in March, running out almost four lengths clear of another former dual-Stayers champion in Flooring Porter.

After a somewhat unlucky effort in the 2023 version, it vindicated a pre-festival preparation that consisted of just one winning run in December’s Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse.

He appears to be a horse that appreciates time between races so a seven-week gap to Punchestown should suit, although he did disappoint in this race a year ago when only fourth to Klassical Dream.

Teahupoo also appears to relish the sort of cut in the ground that’s far from guaranteed on Thursday. Currently forecast rainfall may helpfully reach the Naas area, or it may not. But more than a few of Teahupoo’s 10-strong opposition will feel their hopes boosted if it doesn’t.

Teahupoo’s stable companion Sire Du Berlais will be one of those. The veteran came up honourably short of pulling off a superb Cheltenham-Aintree-Punchestown hat-trick in 2023 and is still no back number.

Home By The Lee didn’t help his chances at Cheltenham with some indifferent jumping, some of it unhelpfully to the right. In the circumstances, getting within six lengths of Tehaupoo was no bad effort.

On a quicker surface, and going right-handed, he might be the one to expose any vulnerabilities in the favourite.

Going right-handed was widely anticipated to be a likely issue for the mercurial Gaelic Warrior in Cheltenham’s Arkle. Ultimately the application of a hood seemed to work wonders as he easily scored from Found A Fifty and Il Etait Temps.

Both of those subsequently won Grade Ones at Aintree and Il Etait Temps will take on his stable companion again in Thursday’s Barberstown Castle Novice Chase.

Maybe a four-runner turnout, with only John Ryan’s outclassed outsider Mount Frisco taking on team Mullins, was inevitable in the circumstances, but it’s still a less than good look for a €125,000 contest.

Earlier this season, Gaelic Warrior looked enigmatic at best when unseating in a Grade One match with his stable companion Fact To File at the Dublin Racing Festival.

However, he looked a very different proposition at Cheltenham. It will be a surprise if he doesn’t follow up here although hardly as much of a shock if Willie Mullins doesn’t land the race for a remarkable ninth time in a row.

Thursday’s major spectacle will be the Mongey La Touche over the famed Punchestown banks. Ireland’s longest race has a field of 15 lining up including last year’s winner Vital Island.

Proven course experience can trump apparent handicap ratings in such a specialised challenge. But considering he has already won over the banks in February, Coko Beach’s 159-rated quality makes for a combination that’s hard to resist.

Considering how closely his form ties in with the dual-Grade One winner Spillane’s Tower, how Blood Destiny fares off a mark of 150 on his handicap debut is what much of the two-mile chase is likely to revolve around.