The €300,000 Punchestown Gold Cup is the highlight of Day 2 of the season-ending Festival at the Co. Kildare venue and it promises to be one of the races of the week.

Six horses are set to face the starter at 5.55pm and they include the first two home from last month’s Cheltenham Gold Cup where Galopin Des Champs stamped his authority on the division with an impressive seven lengths victory over Bravemansgame.

Going into Cheltenham there were doubts over the ability of these two horses to stay the extended three miles and two furlongs as neither had raced over that far before, but it proved no obstacle to Galopin Des Champs. The seven-year-old son of German sire Timos powered up the famous hill to leave his rivals trailing in his wake.

Punchestown poses an altogether different test today. Firstly, it is a flatter course than Cheltenham, they also race in the opposite direction and more importantly the race is run over a distance that is two furlongs shorter than they raced over last time.

Galopin Des Champs will have no issues with either today’s course or distance. He is two wins from two around Punchestown and that includes a victory in the John Durkan Memorial Chase over two miles and four furlongs and he is a worthy favourite.

That said, this course and distance is likely to suit Bravemansgame far better than Cheltenham. His career best performance prior to Cheltenham was in the King George VI Chase at Kempton last Christmas where he had the measure of L’Homme Presse when that rival exited at the last fence. Kempton is a right-handed track like Punchestown and that race was over today’s distance of three miles.

Bravemansgame also has a tendency to get worked up in the preliminaries - he normally wears a hood to post - and Punchestown should be far less of a cauldron than the Cheltenham Festival was on Gold Cup Day.

Going back to the Cheltenham race, Bravemansgame was upsides Galopin Des Champs jumping the final fence and it was only in the latter stages, as his stamina reserves ran out, that he gave best to his rival.

In all likelihood Galopin Des Champs will win again, but at their current odds of 30/100 Galopin Des Champs and 9/2 Bravemansgame with bet365, there is little doubt that the Paul Nicholls’ trained contender represents the better value from a betting perspective.

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While in all probability this race will develop into a match between the two, there are four other runners in with a chance to spoil the party. Shark Hanlon’s Hewick was running a big race in the Cheltenham Gold before taking a crashing fall at the second last fence. He looked booked for only a minor placing prior to his exit, but if fully recovered from those exertions he is likely to get an easy lead here and could achieve a podium finish.

Envoi Allen was a long way behind Bravemansgame in the King George VI Chase, but bounced back to something near his best when landing the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham. He overcame jumping errors to prevail that day and while he will have his supporters at double-figure odds his Punchestown record wouldn’t be great with just one victory here as a Novice from four races over the course.

Fury Road got no further than the second fence in the Grand National at Aintree having run no race behind Envoi Allen on his previous start at Cheltenham. The one glimmer of hope for Fury Road is his performance in the Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival in February where he was close to Galopin Des Champs when making a mistake at the final fence. His tendency to jump left at his fences will be a potential hindrance on this right-handed course.

The rank outsider, Factorslow, is yet to win a race since leaving his native France and it would be some shock if his first victory on Irish soil came in this Grade One contest, but he arrives off the back of a career best effort. He finished within a neck of subsequent Grand National hero Corach Rambler at the Cheltenham Festival when giving 4lbs away to his rival. Even that performance leaves him with almost two stones of improvement to find on his official rating if he is to trouble an in-form Galopin Des Champs today.

Bookmaker bet365 are offering extra places on selected races throughout the week at Punchestown.