THE St. James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase proved to be quite the result for the Irish challengers, as the Sam Curling-trained Wonderwall was just the third Irish-trained winner of the race in the past nine years.

Given that Irish connections had won the race in the six consecutive years before that, it had been quite a fallow period of late, but the pendulum very much swung in favour of the Irish challengers.

Not only did Its On The Line and Willitgoahead chase him home in a clean sweep of the placings for the Irish team, but with Carnfunnock, Plan Of Attack, Ontheropes, Angels Dawn and Ryehill all making it into the top 10, it was one of the best Irish results in the race, as they were responsible for eight of the top 10 finishers.

On to the next

Whilst Cheltenham is scarcely in the rear-view mirror, attention swiftly turns to the other highly-coveted British hunter chase, with the Randox Aintree Foxhunters taking place next Thursday afternoon.

The relatively quick turnaround means that just two of those eight Irish-trained horses that made it into the Cheltenham top 10 are potentially set to line up in Aintree.

Willitgoahead, who switched to Gordon Elliott in the days before finishing a cracking third, is the current market leader, whilst Tom Mullins’ Ontheropes could also attempt to take in both Cheltenham and Aintree contests.

They could be joined by a number of new additions in a seven-strong Irish entry. Pat Doyle’s Lifetime Ambition gets his chance to take in the race, having been ineligible last year, where he could line up alongside fellow Irish challengers Milan Forth, Ramillies, Dorking Cock and Annamix.

The defending champion, Its On The Line, is the notable absentee from the 33 entries, although the 2023 victor, Famous Clermont, leads a stronger British challenge to the one that took to the track at Prestbury Park, as he will be joined by the Walrus winner, My Drogo.

National glory

Interestingly, the Cheltenham victor Wonderwall could have a ‘National’ target ahead, as the nine-year-old was this week revealed as one of 86 entries for the BoyleSports Irish National, Ireland’s richest jumps races, on April 21st.

The Yeats gelding has been assigned a mark of 136 for the €500,000 contest off the back of his Cheltenham success, but connections do also have the option of running nine days earlier in the Scottish equivalent at Ayr.

He is one of 60 entries for that four-miler, where he could come up against last year’s Cheltenham Festival hunter chase winner, Sine Nomine. She has failed to finish each of her three starts outside of the hunter chase division this season.

Cheltenham Foxhunter winners have something of a mixed record in subsequent national bids. The 2014 winner, Tammys Hill, had been due to go to Fairyhouse the month after his Cheltenham win for Liam Lennon, but had to be taken out of the race when lame and was fatally injured in the race a year later.

Before that, Cappa Bleu, who had won the Cheltenham Foxhunters at the age of seven in 2009, went on to finish second and fourth in consecutive editions of the English National at Aintree.

It will be interesting to see if the Wonderwall team are tempted by the prospect of National glory in the coming weeks.

THE new season of four-year-old maiden races looks set to step up a gear this weekend, with a bumper number of entries within the age group at all four of this weekend’s fixtures.

There are no fewer than 49 horses entered in the four-year-old geldings’ maiden at Monksgrange tomorrow, which is just one more than the 48 entries for the four-year-old maiden at Oldcastle, whilst there are 42 entries for the Liscarroll opener tomorrow, and 37 in today’s four-year-old maiden at Loughbrickland.

This could well set the tone for the weeks ahead, if the number of horses still in the pipeline is anything to go by. At present, the number of four-year-olds with a hunter certificate is already up 11% on the corresponding point 12 months earlier, and handlers will now be keen to give their youngsters their competitive introductions, as we head into the peak weeks of the season.

No fewer than 24 four-year-old maiden races are scheduled to take place between now and the Easter weekend in three weeks’ time.

Point-to-point ratings

Jet is destined for the stars

THERE was no disguising the superiority of Jet To Monte Carlo (93++) ,as he proved himself to be the class act of the eight-strong field in the four-year-old maiden at Ballynoe last Sunday.

The son of Jet Away, who had raced from the front of the field throughout, had been able to get an advantage of a couple of lengths with a circuit to go and, once slipping the field with a good jump three out, his lead just grew ever wider as he scarcely came off the bridle in an impressive introduction. A smart career looks to lie ahead for him.

Arcadian Emperor (92++) reaped the rewards for patient tactics at Lisronagh, as he finished his debut full of running in a race that had been strongly run, clocking a time 14 seconds quicker than the average on the card.

Durrow hosted the sole four-year-old mares’ maiden of the weekend, and it saw stablemates, Crafted Pearl (83+) and Magic Gloves, fight out the finish, in a race run to the strongest pace on the card. They had the race between them before the home straight, and are definite future track winners.

Follow Your Luck (91+) stepped forward from his debut in the geldings’ equivalent in that age group, as he put that experience to good use to battle back, having been outjumped at the last, whilst Daydream Nation (92++) was a notable winning five-year-old. Although this was his third start, those in behind him had plenty of proven form to suggest his 16-length victory has to be taken seriously.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Seeitoldya (92+) had to battle back after making a mistake at a crucial point to win snugly in Ballycrystal, whilst Lultimatom (92++) had too much pace for his five rivals at Portrush.