Dancing City leads over the last for Paul Townend© Photo Healy Racing
Dancing City has been busy at the big festivals, but showed he is more than up for hard work when toughing it out in the Grade 1 novices' hurdle over an extended 2m7f at Punchestown.
He won the Grade 1 novices' hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival and was third in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham before taking the Grade 1 novices' hurdle at Aintree.
In this assignment, he travelled through well for Paul Townend to grab the lead from the Gordon Elliott pair of Better Days Ahead and Stellar Story racing to the last.
He was far from home, though, as stablemate, High Class Hero loomed on his outer. High Class Hero wasn't fluent with his landing gear, but kept trying to reel in Dancing City who stuck to his task well to seal it by half a length.
The winner justified 7/4 favouritism from the 9/1 runner-up.
Willie Mullins said: “It just shows how tough he is that he’s been to every racing Festival, it takes a lot of doing. It all goes well for the future going over fences.
“He did quite well coming back from Aintree. We haven’t done that before — Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown. It looks achievable, so we might do more of it in the future!
“He didn’t show how good he was until we went out in trip.
“High Class Hero ran very well and looked for a minute that he might upset Paul.”
Townend said: "He was (a good winner in Aintree) and I thought he had a hard race the last day.
"He has danced every dance so to turn up here and perform was a big performance.
"He was disappointing at the start of his career, but he is more than making up for it now.
"In Aintree when I left the back straight, I thought I was stuffed and, by the time I got into the straight, I was back on the bridle so he is a little bit deceiving.
"He doesn't kill himself when he gets to the front and I got all mixed up with reins wrapped around my hand and everything, so all I could do was try and not interfere with him. He stuck it out well.
"He is indeed (progressive) and he is very deceiving. I was actually going to ride another one in Aintree and it got withdrawn on the day, so these things can work out for the best sometimes.
"I thought I bottomed him in Aintree, but he bounced out of it well and he's a tough horse and a good horse.
"A good run from the second (High Class Hero), I suppose he was more disappointing in Cheltenham, but he has bounced back. He's a nice horse."
Paddy Power cut Dancing City from 14/1 to 10/1 for the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at next year's Cheltenham Festival.
This winner cut Jack Kennedy's lead to five over Townend in the jockeys' title race.
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
