Punchestown Results Sat, 4th May, 2019

Blue bags banks double

We had a great start and we're after having a great finish, in between just wasn't great,. It's great for Ray Barron, who is with us and he's a very hard worker. He rides a lot of the young horses and gets them going so that is his reward. Having a winner at the festival in these races is great and we saw Peter Maher getting his name on the La Touche the other day. We're all kind of smallish trainers and I'm grateful to Mr McManus to let me do this with these horses. That's what I love and the riders love riding around there. Blue Templar could be a nice horse for the La Touche next year. He loves the ground and Ray said out in front he was pricking his ears. All he can do is win. The owner has been patient as he was an eight-year-old maiden coming here on Tuesday. It's paid off now with two wins here this week. He's only rated 89 or 90 over fences but once he sees a bank he excels at it. Unfortunately Josie Orders is paying for his success, with 12-7 and that's telling on him a good bit. He'll have a lesser penalty next year and he's also a soft ground horse. We're happy, we've had a good week with two winners.

Morning powers clear in marathon contest

I'm in shock to be honest. I can't believe it,. For an 11-year-old to climb the handicap so much but he's done it. His grand-mother was a full-sister to a National winner and being by Cloudings they seem to stay well so we said we'd take a chance in the race. With Sean's 7lb it was such a light weight and obviously helped so much over three-miles-seven. I'm just so shocked and thrilled to have a winner up here. The handicapper is probably going to have his say now but we don't care. It doesn't matter if he never wins again. It's been an unbelievable season and I don't think we've had a horse that hasn't finished in the first three, bar one on the Flat. The horses are rocking and long may it continue. We'll try and keep them healthy if we can.

Dieux does business again in Annie Power

I thought there was upset on the cards for a minute. Stormy Ireland ran a cracker and she was just getting away from Paul, he wasn't cruising past her like I thought he would,. Paul said to me that he felt the ground was drying up every minute and that she just wasn't relishing that ground. She got the job done. She didn't want to get down and gallop on it. It's just been an extraordinary dry winter, I know they've put a lot of water on it but you just can't replicate having a months rain. We'll see how she comes out of it. The French race comes up very quick but we'll see in the next week how she gets over that. We'll have to look at the French Champion Hurdle. She's done nothing all year so maybe a bit of hardship mightn't do her any harm at this stage of the game. There seems to be more prize-money for her over hurdles and I wouldn't go back chasing unless we got real winter ground next season. Unless there are real good prizes I don't think there is a necessity to risk her over fences. Stormy Ireland is so brave. She's so small, she's only about 15-3, and there's nothing of her but she has a heart as big as a lion. Hopefully she'll get a real good reward one of these days. She'll definitely go back to France, maybe the Prix la Barka or something like that will suit her.

Raffles returns to claim Grade One glory

He was great. He's done very well to get back from the injury he had at Kempton, it was horrible,. Obviously he had to miss Cheltenham and he had no chance of getting to Aintree so it was just whether we had time to get back for this. To be fair Sarah that looks after him has worked her socks off with the cut. It was on his hind leg and that's why he's got the boots on, to protect him. There is still a wound there but it's covered up. Credit to everybody, the vets who stitched him together at Kempton and our guys at home, and Sarah in particular, because it's been a great effort to get him back. Fair play to him, he must be a good horse because I was nervous that he wouldn't be quite ready for a battle like that both mentally and fitness wise. We only started training him three weeks ago so he's a tough horse and a good one. We're very lucky because we found him and then he got wounded. Then a week later I found a thing called Pentland Hills hiding in a corner!

Heron claims back to back Pat Taaffes

Mullins dominates in Ballymore

It was a good performance under that weight for a five-year-old,. He got into a bit of trouble and made that mistake at the last but he picked up well. He might be a bit high for the Galway Hurdle but he'll definitely go back on the Flat. I'm delighted for Mr Bobbett as I've had no luck for him this season.

Ard makes winning start on 'track'