"I'd love to have a couple of jumpers and next winter we'll definitely try have a few to get us out and about,” said Paul Deegan earlier in the year and his hopes come to fruition when Quideo De Touzaine contests the Follow Punchestown On Facebook Maiden Hurdle under Tommy Treacy at 2.45 this afternoon.
"Anything we have that is half-decent we sell them. We sold Rare Symphony to go jumping and Bold Identity to go jumping. They are two really nice horses that you'd love to go jumping with but my owners want to move them on and we're predominantly a flat yard and you need to keep new fresh blood coming in,” the Curragh trainer explained.
Quideo De Touzaine won a Stratford bumper when with Paul Nicholls after which the champion trainer said: "He comes from a lovely French family. We gave him plenty of time, as he needed it to come to himself, and he was green when making a successful debut in a Stratford bumper, where he didn't look like winning but ended up doing so impressively.
"He'll make a cracking staying chaser, but staying novice hurdles will be the target first. Like loads of the novices, he's done masses of schooling in the outdoor school, but due to the firm ground I haven't been able to get them on grass. I love to give them one flip up over hurdles on grass before running them."
Quideo De Touzaine was second in a maiden hurdle at Hereford after that before disappointing at Chepstow – that being his last run – in March 2010.
Deegan said today: "We've had jumps runners before – Ravati was second in a maiden hurdle for us at Roscommon in August 2009 and was sold on the back of that.
"This fellow today (Quideo De Touzaine) is coming off a long lay-off and he's had his problems. He is belonging to friends of mine and the plan after this is to run him in the charity race at Naas at the end of the month."
