Who To Follow At Punchestown On Sunday - 13/02/22

James Mackie | @JMackieRacing

Punchestown - February 13 2022
Punchestown 15:10
2
Paul Townend

Deploy The Getaway

J: Paul Townend
T: W P Mullins
N/A
Age: 7
Weight: 11-9
OR: N/A
Days: 19

The penultimate selection of the afternoon comes in the feature Listed two mile Novice Hurdle and Deploy The Getaway for the inform Willie Mullins.

The seven year old gelding was an expensive £200,000 purchase by Cheveley Park Stud and he now looks to be finding his best form.

Winning a P2P in February 2019 by 20 lengths, he made his rules debut in March last year and finished a good second learning a bit for the experience.

This season he was given his hurdles debut at Gowran Park and finished second behind a fair type for Gordon Elliott and then backed that up with a third in a 21 runner Maiden Hurdle.

Having learnt a lot for both those experiences he got off the mark last time out in extremely taking style at Down Royal, winning the race by 18 lengths.

If improving from that, which he should, he has a big chance on Sunday.

DateCourseDistanceTypeWeightPosition
29/04/22PUN19.5Gd/Y11-105
03/04/22FAI16Y11-45
13/03/22NAA15.5Sft11-15
13/02/22PUN16Hy11-92
25/01/22DRO16.5Y11-61

Trainer To Follow - Willie Mullins

Willie Mullins is the trainer to follow at any meeting he has a runner at the moment with the master handler finding it hard to do wrong.

On Sunday at Punchestown he has some big chances as always, starting with Ciel De Niege in the two mile Novice Chase with the seven year old looking to land a hat-trick off top weight.

In the Grand National Trial he fields Stones And Roses who unseated last time out and will be looking to jump better this time around.

In the feature Listed Novice Hurdle he has Deploy The Getaway for Cheveley Park Stud and having won by 18 lengths last time out he deserves his chance in this sphere.

Finally in the bumper he gives James's Gate his first attempt under rules, costing €62,000 and could be anything, Patrick Mullins takes the ride.

Mullins over the last two weeks has ran 74 horses and has managed 21 winners which sees him pose a 28% strike rate.

Jockey To Follow - Mark Walsh

JP McManus' number one rider in Ireland Mark Walsh could have a great time of things on Sunday with a superb book of rides.

In the first race of the day he sits on Midnight Maestro who could hold a big chance if getting back to form and then in the next he teams up with Willie Mullins on Ciel De Neige who will go off favourite.

In the Grand National Trial he gets the mount on the ex Nicky Henderson trained Champagne Platinum who looks to have taken well to fences and will certainly stay.

Walsh's big ride of the afternoon comes in the Listed Novice Hurdle and Slip Of The Tongue for Padraig Roche will not be far away.

The rider heads into the weekend running at a strike rate of 16% having landed three winners from his last 19 rides over the last two weeks.