Irish trainer Willie Mullins has confirmed that Douvan & Un De Sceaux will spearhead his challenge at the Punchestown Festival.
The eight-year-old Douvan was seemingly running a very good race in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, but took a crashing fall at the fourth last.
On his chances, Mullins said via the Racing Post:
Douvan is good. He seems fine since Cheltenham and we are training him towards Punchestown and the BoyleSports Champion Chase.
Un De Sceaux appeared to be a lucky winner at Fairyhouse last week, when the challenging Doctor Phoenix took a crashing fall at the last to leave the fortunate 10-year-old in the clear.
Mullins added.
Un De Sceaux won nicely at Fairyhouse and the plan would be for him to go to the Champion Chase as well. He hasn’t done much since Fairyhouse but he’s made of iron and we are looking forward to it.
Mullins also suggested that Stayers’ Hurdle hero Penhill, who was extremley impressive at Cheltenham considering a prior nine month lay-off, will be in attendance at the festival.
He said:
We were obviously going to Cheltenham hoping Penhill could do what he did and win there without a run, but the closer it got to the race I was just hoping to myself that he could run well at Cheltenham and then come back for this race at Punchestown – it was some prep run!
It remains to be seen what Mullins will do with Penhill at the festival, but there are a good few options for the seven-year-old.
