Paul Townend: the inside track on my weekend rides

I kick off the weekend in the first race at Fairyhouse, a four-year-old hurdle (12:00), on Macho Man. He comes with a huge reputation but so does his main rival in this, Proactif. We’ve been watching them and riding them plenty at home, and they look like two very nice horses.

I like my fella a lot, although I guess a few of the others have far more recent race experience. Ours have come from France and they have loads of jumping already done. Our two are certainly very nice horses, I just hope it’s Mark Walsh who is looking at the back of me.

Next up is the Maiden Hurdle (12:30), where I ride Bambino Fever. We were obviously disappointed to get beaten in Naas the last day, as she was such a good bumper filly. Before that she was four from four, including a big Cheltenham Champion Bumper win, so my sister Jody – who rode Bambino Fever to victory – keeps reminding me.

I think we might have run into an above average mare in opposition that day, as we were both a long way clear of the third. That can happen, and if Gordon Elliott’s horse isn’t in the race we win well and are delighted, so there are positives to take out of it. Hopefully she can right that wrong by putting that experience to good use.

That said, we’ll definitely be disappointed if she can’t make up for that defeat here. She does seem perfect after the last run.

I’ve gone for Blood Destiny in the Grade Three Handicap Chase (13:40). I remember a time where I couldn’t split him with Lossiemouth, and their careers have obviously gone different ways. I’m taking a chance on him on good ground back over two miles.

He’s been keeping good form and in good company. He just didn’t stay in Galway – up that hill you really do have to stay there. It’s not ideal giving weight away to everything in the field but he’s a high-class horse.

He might just find handicap company easier again and start enjoying it – that’s what I’m hoping anyway. I’m going to let him go on and enjoy himself, he seems to be a very solid jumper and a graded horse in a handicap. He has top weight for a reason.

Finally on Saturday I ride Port Joulain in the Beginners Chase (14:15). It’s a massive drop in trip from his first run in a beginners, where he just ran a bit keen over nearly three miles at Punchestown on heavy ground and paid the penalty for that.

He definitely has to improve on what we saw that day, which was disappointing. On the flip side, he jumped well for Danny and for a long way, so he possibly just did a bit too much and got tired. This time of the year we’ll get a run into him and see where we are.

The Grade Three Novice Chase (12:50) kicks off three good rides and some great racing in Punchestown. In this one I’ve chosen to ride Predators Gold.

I know he missed a year, but he was a novice hurdler that we liked a lot. He came back after a huge absence of 582 days to win a good race in Navan under Danny Mullins. I suppose his novice chasing season has just been delayed a year, but he looked to retain all his form that day.

There are some great lines of form from that run and that’s the route I took in picking him here. He can only improve if he performed like that after a long absence, and chasing seems to suit him.

The feature race on the card is the Grade One Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle (14:20). Sober is an interesting one, and of course if it was a Flat race he would be very short. It wasn’t an easy choice as Free Spirit looks decent and will have a big season to come.

It’s a small field but a competitive one. If I’m on the wrong one it just means we have a very good horse in Free Spirit – that’s the way I look at it. Sober’s Flat form, including the Royal Ascot race over nearly 2m 6f, might mean that in time he needs further over hurdles. He has a great level of ability. 

I wind up the day riding Riskabahia in a Maiden Hurdle (14:50) with a maximum field. She weakened a lot late on in her first race for us at Navan. We expected a lot more, she was quite keen that day and maybe just did too much on the heavy ground.

She wears a hood now and you could probably forgive her that from what she showed us at home. She’s still working well at home, so this is a second chance to show us something.

The hood will settle her down and the last run may have taken the fizz out of her. It certainly wasn’t a weak race where she made her debut, and I hope she shows us what she’s shown us at home in this second run.