AFTER spring festivals at Cheltenham, Fairyhouse and Aintree where the ground was soft at best, a word that we haven’t seen in a while – good – made it into the going description for Punchestown, and some jockeys on the opening day of the meeting were going faster than they had been in months.

The leaders went off hard in the Champion Novice Hurdle, just two of the seven finishers posting finishing speed percentages of 100% or higher in the race, and it was a similar story in the handicap hurdle over the same trip that was next on the card, three of the 20 finishers with a finishing speed of 100% or higher, when par for the Punchestown hurdle track is around 103%.