Punchestown preview: "He loved fences from the first time he saw them"

Sir Allen bids to continue a superb year for Andrew Slattery’s stable with victory in the Grade Three Matchbook Betting Exchange Novice Chase at Punchestown on Wednesday.

Fresh from his best ever season on the level, with his Thurles yard sending out a best-ever 41 winners to date, Slattery bagged a Grade Two chase with Fleur In The Park landing the PWC Danoli Chase at Gowran Park earlier this month.

Now he is hoping Sir Allen can continue a burgeoning love affair with fences against the might of Willie Mullins, Emmet Mullins and Gordon Elliott in the extended two-and-a-quarter-mile contest at the Kildare track.

Sir Allen is making up for lost ground after missing 15 months with a serious leg injury, recording a comeback win on the Flat and bouncing back to form over jumps, putting up an improved showing to win a Gowran beginners’ event by four and a quarter lengths.

“We weren’t surprised by Gowran as he was a good juvenile hurdler and he was always jumping hurdles too big,” said Slattery. “He seemed to take to fences very well and hopefully he keeps taking to them. He loved fences from the first time he saw them.

“He has been a very versatile horse. He was out for two years with a leg injury and he is back and they don’t often come back from them. But he just seems to love jumping fences so we are hopeful they might eke a bit of improvement out of him as well.”

Sir Allen does not have too much to find with Bunting who won at Ballinrobe before posting a decent effort on the level in the Irish Cesarewitch at the Curragh. Elliott fields two runners in Sligo chase winner Chanceawetmorning (Jack Kennedy) and Miss Fourie (Danny Gilligan). Emmet Mullins’s Vitorio Piel rounds up the five strong field.

A second Grade Three on the card over the larger obstacles, the Matchbook Betting Exchange Chase, looks set to feature an odds-on favourite in Henry de Bromhead’s experienced chaser Gorgeous Tom, who was 12th in the Grand National at Aintree in April and third in the Galway Plate.

The presence of Elliott’s well-travelled eight-year-old Croke Park, rated 4lb below the favourite on official ratings, ensures a stiff test for the remaining two runners.

But Barry Connell is happy to take on the pair with Apple’s Of Bresil who won a beginners’ chase at Kilbeggan in May by 11 lengths and took a step forward in terms of bare form when second at Listowel on his seasonal reappearance.

“At Listowel he was stepping up to more experienced company. I think he had one run going into it and the first and third had seven or eight runs,” said Connell. “The trip was probably a little bit shorter than ultimately he would like, so in the circumstances I thought he ran well.

“It is not a novice race and there are two horses in it that are rated 30lb higher than him who are Grade Two horses, so the reality is if he collects prize-money we will be delighted because it’s another step up the ladder. But the ground and trip will suit.”