Willie Mullins confirmed his status as the dominant force on both sides of the Irish Sea at Sandown on Saturday, claiming a second consecutive British trainers’ title, and the trainer is likely to have plenty of success at the Punchestown Festival.

Lecky Watson lines up in the Grade 1 Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase and is set to take on his illustrious stablemate Ballyburn.

The gelding was a winner at the Cheltenham Festival and that form arguably makes him the one to beat, as he bids to follow up in Ireland this week.

Cheltenham success for Lecky

Lecky Watson produced a career-best performance to win the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

He was prominent throughout the race but took up the running before the second-last and kept on strongly to come out on top, obliging at odds of 20/1.

Stablemate Ballyburn was the odds-on favourite but he pulled like a train throughout, travelled poorly, and made some significant jumping errors.

Ridden by Sean O’Keefe, Lecky Watson had no such problems and always looked like the winner, despite hanging under pressure.

That performance at the highest level surely makes him the one to beat at Punchestown, as it’s the biggest staying novice chase of the season, which makes it the strongest piece of form on offer.

Stamina is his forte

The son of Valirann shaped like a strong stayer early on in his career and showed a fair level of form in bumpers, despite failing to win in that sphere. He finished fourth behind A Dream To Share in the 2023 Champion Bumper and that form has worked out ridiculously well.

Mullins’ gelding had five starts over hurdles and he got off the mark at the first time of asking, in a 2m7f maiden hurdle at Thurles. Following that up with a couple of fair placed efforts in graded company, he was a notch or two below the top level as a novice hurdler.

His Cheltenham Festival success was his first start over three miles since switching to fences so the career-best performance is no real surprise.

Flourishing over fences

Unbeaten in three starts over fences thus far, he gained revenge over Slade Steel, who beat him over hurdles, when winning by a length-and-a-half at Naas in December. Beating the Supreme winner over an inadequate trip is certainly an excellent start.

He made virtually all the running when beating a couple of useful Gordon Elliott horses in a Grade 3 over an extended 2m3f here in January. Whilst his jumping wasn’t the best that day, he still managed to score by a comfortable margin.

Cheltenham was the next logical step and he remains lightly raced over fences to suggest there could be more to come.

Punchestown here we come

Connections decided not to head to Aintree and that means he’s had 48 days to get over his exertions at Cheltenham. That should be more than enough time to recharge the batteries and a similar level of performance would surely make him hard to beat.

Ballyburn, Stellar Story and Gorgeous Tom are all in opposition once again and while the former has the ability to come out on top, it’s hard to be confident after his performance at Cheltenham.

Lecky Watson is the rock-solid form pick and a follow up success could be on the cards.