“CHASING, chasing and chasing,” was the response by Paul Nolan into an enquiry on the long term ambition with Sandor Clegane (15/8f), who completed a very good novice hurdle campaign by taking the valuable Connolly’s Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Hurdle Series Final with rider Sean O’Keeffe.

Like his market rival Three Card Brag, the Kay Browne and Anne Coffey-owned gelding would have been one of the main contenders for the three-mile novice Grade 1 on this card but he qualified for this series final given he only cost €20,000 as a store and saw the two-and-a-half-mile trip out strongly despite a slow jump at the last.

“We’ll start off at two and a half miles and build him up,” Nolan said, already looking to next season. “Please God we’ll be back at Cheltenham again. We just need to keep him in one piece until then.

“It’s nice to get out the gap with a nice pot. He’d been placed in a lot of Grade 1s, he ran into a lot of traffic problems in Cheltenham, and today was more simple.

Belter

Conor O’Dwyer recorded some of the finest moments of his riding career at the Punchestown Festival on board the likes of Hardy Eustace and War Of Attrition and he was on hand to see his son Charlie record his first success at the festival, when he partnered Ballybawn Belter to win the opening Adare Manor Opportunity Series Final Handicap Hurdle.

Liz Doyle’s mare was recording her second major festival win, having taken the Paddy Mullins Mares Handicap Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival, and J.P. McManus was a fitting winning owner, giving the backing he gives this series.

“Charlie gave her a beautiful clean ride but in hindsight, he might have kept the bit up high in her mount for a little bit longer, even just for the sake of this nervous trainer in the final furlong,” Doyle laughed. “I’m delighted for Charlie, and his parents Conor and Audrey. It’s a great day for them.

“We will look at something at Galway for her maybe. I’m not sure if she’d be quick enough for the Hurdle, or if she would even get in.”

Delighted

John McConnell has his ever developing training base set up in Meath but he is very much still a Kildare man at heart and was delighted to score at his original local track with Hereditary Rule on Wednesday.

Ridden by another local in Shane O’Callaghan, the eight-year-old gelding stayed out of trouble in an eventful Grade A HSS Hire Handicap Chase to win by eight and a half lengths from last year’s winner Royal Rendezvous.

“The drying ground was a big help to him,” McConnell said of the winner, who is owned by the CF Syndicate, fronted by St Patrick’s Athletic long-time servant Ian Bermingham. “He jumped much better and this was probably a little bit easier than his last two races (at Cheltenham and Aintree).”

Unusual

There was an unusual incident prior to the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel Hurdle in which the two Gordon Elliott-trained runners, Imagine and Perfect Attitude, were spotted to have been wearing the wrong tack on their way down to the start.

The pair had to come back in and exchange saddles and riders reweigh, which caused the race to be delayed by 13 minutes and Elliott was subsequently fined €500 by the stewards. The two-and-and-half-mile contest eventually went to Grangeclare West, who ended a slightly disappointing season on a positive note for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend.

The Cheveley Park Stud-owned seven-year-old made all of the running and responded well to pressure to hold off Da Capo Glory.

Marvel

Mullins closed out the second day of the festival with a hat-trick secured thanks to Junta Marvel and Jody Townend, who took the Grade 3 Weatherbys General Stud Book Irish EBF Mares Flat Race.

Owned by the Turner family, the daughter of Masked Marvel stepped forward significantly from her debut win at Limerick, travelling smoothly into contention for Townend, picking up well to take it up early in the straight and then seeing off the challenge of Colm Murphy’s Rhaenyra, who defied odds of 80/1 in second.