The Punchestown Festival begins on Tuesday evening as the jumps season in Ireland reaches a thrilling conclusion with five days of stunning action, boasting 12 Grade 1s and north of €3m in prize money.

They race at Punchestown from 2.30pm-6.35pm, with the Grade 1 William Hill Champion Chase the feature contest at 6.00pm, one of three top-level contests on the card.

We've picked out a Punchestown accumulator for day one of the meeting..

Punchestown Day 1 Accumulator

bet365 Punchestown Betting Offer

Ballyburn to bounce back in style

Things didn't go to plan for BALLYBURN at Cheltenham last month as patient tactics failed to pay off on his first go at three miles, his lacklustre run paving the way for stablemate Lecky Watson to oblige from Stellar Story in second.

The trio meet again in the Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase and Paul Townend's partner can make amends.

Ballyburn will surely be allowed to stride out this time and a positive attitude can help him settle into the rhythm of his race in a way that just didn't happen at Cheltenham.

He looked good under a forward ride at the Dublin Racing Festival previously and there should still be a very bright future for him in staying chases.

Champion Chase winner being underestimated

The Queen Mother Champion Chase winner MARINE NATIONALE meets the Ryanair Chase scorer Fact To File in the William Hill Champion Chase and perhaps it is the former that is being underestimated slightly by the market.

Fact To File was very impressive in that Ryanair win, but he has never run over a trip as short as this in his jumping career to date. Going at this pace could be a worry and the overall form of his Cheltenham success is perhaps not as strong as we might ordinarily expect from that race.

Marine Nationale was viewed by many as the horse to take out of the Dublin Chase in February despite Solness collecting the prize and so it proved at Cheltenham in his stylish Champion Chase win.

Trainer Barry Connell has been quite bullish since, suggesting that his charge will be even better again now and, in that scenario, he can prove too good for Fact To File with the trip very much in Marine Nationale's favour.

Starting Fifteen to finish with a flourish

Trainer Eric McNamara clearly thinks plenty of STARTING FIFTEEN as he was allowed to begin his career in a Listed bumper at the trainer's home track in Limerick last month.

He ran a fine race to be second there behind previous winner Light Up The Dark from the Joseph O'Brien string.

Starting Fifteen was giving 7lb to the Camelot filly and ran as well as could have been expected under the circumstances.

This is a big field but probably not the strongest of bumpers for this meeting, unless one of the newcomers proves well above average, and it's noted that champion trainer Willie Mullins has no runner declared.

It represents a drop in class for Starting Fifteen and with Finian Maguire retained in the saddle, it looks to be a suitable opening for him to get on the scoresheet.