Sean O’Keeffe with two bankers and a value bet for Punchestown - 'He’s definitely one for handicaps' Sean O’Keeffe spoke to BOYLE Sports and looks ahead to the Punchestown Festival next week and sheds light on life behind the scenes at the Mullins yard, the Irish Champion Trainers’ race plus two bankers and a value bet for next week The Irish Champion Trainer race is definitely not over despite Gordon Elliott admitting he has “no chance” of winning it It's definitely not over. Gordon is still ahead by a decent margin in the Trainers’ Championship but Willie does have the firepower at Punchestown to win it, but it’s not a foregone conclusion. Gordon is not out of it though. He's a nice team of horses as well, with plenty of horses going for the big races too. Punchestown is always a great Festival to look forward to - the Mullins team love this time of year and there is some top class racing going on Yes, they love it! I think they’ll have around 80 runners. It'll be a big team of lorries heading up to Punchestown every morning. All the festivals kind of roll on pretty quick. Once Cheltenham comes in the spring, it's on pretty quick to Fairyhouse, Aintree and then Punchestown now. So, it's an enjoyable time of year. There's not much break, it's just top class racing in very quick succession. Punchestown is always great to look forward to. It is always a great week to finish off the year with. Plenty of competitive racing, big fields, and it's always an enjoyable week with a great crowd and weather hopefully. The ground is always perfect. It’s a great track. Everybody enjoys it there and I suppose everybody wants to finish off on a good note too. It definitely is very important [to Mullins]. All the best horses end up at Punchestown at the end of the year. It fits in well in the calendar, with horses that have gone to Cheltenham and Aintree and Fairyhouse. Sometimes it can come a little bit quick after Aintree and Fairyhouse, but Cheltenham horses have had a nice break coming in from there. It’s the last big races of the season before the good horses go out on their summer holidays. Punchestown always does a great job there and the ground and everything is always good and safe. There is no complacency at Mullins’ yard heading into the Festival I wouldn't think so. The horses all have to turn up in top form. But there's definitely a good team of horses there for us and with a bit of luck, I think Willie should definitely win the trainer's championship. It’s great competition between him and Gordon Elliott for the title Gordon has been very close before and he's very close again. I’m sure in the future there won't be much between them again. It is great competition and hopefully we'll keep coming out on top, at least from my point of view! What I do at the Mullins yard and the massive effort behind the scenes at the operation I ride out there three days a week, working the horses. I've been working plenty of the horses and schooling plenty of them. You’d know a lot of horses in there, helping to get them all ready. I'm not part of the full time staff as such, there's a lot more people on the ground in there on very early mornings, late evenings, mucking out, looking after the horses as well, plus riders are there every day riding out. I’m lucky that I get to ride plenty of them, especially at the big festivals when there's plenty of them turning up and plenty of races. I’m lucky to get a nice few rides there and to pick up a few nice ones over the time as well. You’re there hoping that you get lucky and get on a nice one and things fall your way. The level and quality of horses there is unbelievable. Every morning you go in, you wouldn't know what you could be riding out or you wouldn't know what you could end up riding at the races. The number of top level horses there is second to none, compared with any other yard in the country. That just drives the levels of everyone in the yard. Mullins’ contenders at Punchestown There's plenty to look at! Plenty of novice hurdlers and chasers, and obviously in the open races with the likes of Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth and Il Etait Temps, they're all there again too. Hopefully he'll also have a good few for the handicaps as well. So, it definitely looks like there'll be big team there for sure. The best Mullins horse I have been associated with I was on Galopin Des Champs when he won the Martin Pipe at the Cheltenham Festival in 2021. I won a Hilly Way on Energumene as well. He was a great horse to get a spin on too at that time. So they're the two real big name horses. There’s been a couple of Grade 1 winners too in Lecky Watson and The Nice Guy. What went wrong for Lecky Watson in the Grand National His jumping probably didn’t hold up. He jumped well early and got in a nice position over the first ten fences, then he made a mistake at the Chair and lost a bit of confidence then. After that I was fighting a losing battle on the second circuit. He’ll definitely be back for another big pot along the way hopefully somewhere. My favourite Punchestown Festival memories Probably, coming home from school when the racing was more in the evenings during the week. You’d get in to watch the big races. I used to love watching the TV and so I used to skip the odd day off school and head up to the races. All the great horses have rocked up there. I remember watching all of them back through the years. Sprinter Sacre got a huge ovation when he came and won there. The crowd in Punchestown really appreciate the good horses as well. The level of competition is huge. Everybody wants to get a piece of the action and a winner. There is not an inch given out on the track. There are big fields with handicaps of 25 or more runners. It sounds like there could be plenty more British entries too, which all adds to it. Everyone in the weighing room is fairly good friends really. But when you get out on the track then you have to look after yourself at the end of the day. The Mullins horses I’d love to ride at Punchestown Lossiemouth - I wouldn’t mind riding her. She’ll win the Champion Hurdle, no doubt. A spin on Kopek Des Bordes would be good fun in the two mile Novice Chase. Gaelic Warrior obviously will be hard to beat coming back again too. Thoughts on the Punchestown Gold Cup It's a great race and one which can throw up a different or unexpected result coming towards the end of the season. The year Fastorslow won it the first year, it was a little surprising. But Gaelic Warrior’s performance in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham was unbelievable and if he can bring that level, he'd be extremely hard to beat. His biggest danger would be Fact To File. He’s a pressure horse and he missed Cheltenham. They had a great battle in the John Durkan at the start of season in Punchestown, so it'll be another great battle between the two of them again. Gaelic Warrior has the better form this season. It's just whether Fact To File is a little bit fresher come this time of the year. Lossiemouth wins the Champion Hurdle I don't think there's anything that will trouble Lossiemouth. The race is teeing up nicely for her to go and do the business. Teahupoo will rightly be favourite for the Champion Stayers’ Hurdle I think Gordon has a good strong hand with Teahupoo heading back there and Honesty Policy who won’t be far away. Teahupoo will be the favourite and rightly so. Punchestown will suit Kopek Des Bordes in the Novice Chase Kopek Des Bordes is probably the big one in the two mile chase. He was very unlucky at Cheltenham not to win. That was only a second run over fences. He'd have learned plenty that day as well. He probably still was a little bit raw early on in Cheltenham and then seemed to get in a nice rhythm and was just unlucky to peck at the back of the last fence. He definitely has something to put right, going to Punchestown. The track will suit him. Thoughts on the Champion Novice Chase It’ll be interesting. That'll probably be another wide open race. Punchestown will probably suit Kitzbuhel. He won his Beginner's Chase there as well early in the season as a front runner. I like Quiryn in the Champion Bumper Willie has a nice few entries again. A lot of them ran in Cheltenham and one I like is Quiryn. Paul Townend rode him in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. He finished sixth, but he wasn't beaten very far. He’s only a four year old, so I think he's probably still learning a bit. I thought he'd travel into the race well in Cheltenham. I think he's one to keep an eye on. What would a good festival mean to me Obviously, a winner would be lovely. Maybe a couple! I've had a couple of winners there over the years. It's always a good week, a big week to have winners so we can make something out of the week. Two bankers and two value bets for Punchestown Lossiemouth and Kopek des Bordes are my bankers. In the handicap hurdle, Jump Allen was very unlucky at Cheltenham in the Martin Pipe. He didn't get much luck in running. He’s definitely one for handicaps. Then there’s a horse called Spread Boss Ted who I won a Beginner's Chase on in Naas just before Cheltenham. He could be one for the handicap chases there and a nice sort of a price.
