Barry Connell

Punchestown Sun, 15th Feb, 2026  Ksar Fatal He won well. He’s just a green horse, and it’s his first time over hurdles. He hasn’t run for nine months. He was working with the slow horse that won the National Trial! I don’t know what that tells you. He’s an exciting horse. He’ll have two more runs over hurdles this year and then we’ll go jumping a fence. He’s very good to jump. He’s by a very good sire, Buck’s Boum. I think what we’re looking at is the Grade 2 in Fairyhouse in seven weeks’ time. If everything went well there, he could come back to Punchestown for the 2m4f Grade 1. That’ll be him then under wraps until he goes jumping a fence next year. Willie’s horse was second in Cork, and the winner came out and won a Grade 3 in Gowran yesterday. If it was a month ago you might be thinking about going to Cheltenham but for a horse that is going chasing, I don’t think we need to be going there. There are some lovely targets at home.

Punchestown Sun, 15th Feb, 2026  My Immortal We ran him in Galway in October and it’s usually bottomless there, but I ran three horses and they all came back jarred. I ran him back in Leopardstown and the ground was grand for horses that want good ground but he just didn’t like it, minded himself and pulled himself up. The way that he’s been working at home I was expecting a big run from him today. All we needed was the ground – he’d stay any trip. I might enter him for the Midlands Grand National National (at Uttoxeter, March 14). He’s going to get 10lb for winning today, so that would make him 135 and he’d probably get in off bottom weight. I might stick him in the Leinster National as well, that closes next week, and he could be one for the Welsh National next year.

Punchestown Sun, 15th Feb, 2026  My Immortal We ran him in Galway in October and it’s usually bottomless there but I ran three horses there and they all came back jarred. I ran him back in Leopardstown and the ground was grand for horses that want good ground, but he just didn’t like it, minded himself and pulled himself up. Last year we had a couple of horses, him and Hgranca De Thaix, that were never right. The way that he’s been working at home I was expecting a big run from him today. All we needed was the ground. He’d stay any trip. I’ll probably enter him for the Midlands National. He’s going to get 10lb for that so that would make him 135 and he’d probably get in off bottom weight. We are going to run out of places for soft ground fairly soon. I might stick him in the Leinster National as well, that closes next week. He could be one for the Welsh National next year. Finny gave him an unbelievable ride, he got him into some rhythm. It’s great to have him in the yard, Sean rides most of them but we try to give Finny as many chances as we can.

Tue, 10th Feb, 2026  William Munny It’s soul destroying when you have a horse who would have been capable of being very competitive in the Champion Hurdle this year and he just does something silly. It will mend 100 per cent and he’s something to look forward to for next year.