Punchestown Festival: Johnny Ward's top tips for day one

Speaking to Gordon Elliott this weekend, he admitted that some of his younger horses have gone out into the fields for the summer, as he fears the ground is faster than ideal.

Do not underestimate the challenge for Punchestown officials in ensuring what is considered safe ground on Tueesday. We've had hardly any rain, plenty of sunshine and Cheltenham illustrated the challenges in getting it right underfoot.

With that in mind, the declarations for the first two days are hugely encouraging, and this looks set to be a hell of a Punchestown Festival. I will providing selections for each day on racingtv.com. Be lucky.

I was burnt badly in this last year as I couldn't figure out how Patrick Mullins' mount, Echoes In Rain, could be so short relative to Paul Townend's mount, Blue Lord. Blue Lord flopped, Echoes In Rain won but has finished unplaced in all her runs since.

Sometimes you just have to let go. It's one of my greatest challenges as a punter: accepting when things go wrong. I never backed Shishkin before this season's Cheltenham Festival and am still struggling with the one day I picked him.

So, perhaps Sir Gerhard isn't the stable pick here but I'd be amazed if he were not. I believe he will have no issue at all dropping in trip and I'd make him 1-2 or shorter to beat a stablemate who was beaten when falling at Cheltenham. Moreover, Sir Gerhard's defeat of Three Stripe Life looks better than ever now.

Some cracking each-way offers here. Glan was a good winner last time out, with stablemate Eskylane finishing over six lengths behind him in fifth, but Darragh O'Keeffe has a fine record for Henry de Bromhead and Great Bear is fascinating.

Over the past five seasons, Tom Gibney has an eight per cent strike-rate with hurdlers. Over the same time, de Bromhead has nearly double that (15 per cent) and he might get a bit of improvement out of the Dansili-bred. The leading Irish handler has also been operating at a strike-rate of 20 per cent in the past fortnight (5 winners from 25 runners).

The ground is key to Great Bear. He's a former all-weather winner with two other victories to his name but, for whatever reason, he's never won over hurdles (he's run nine times over obstacles and finished placed in most of those starts).

He also ran a blinder at the Punchestown Festival last year when finishing third having made the running, and is worth siding with here.