Feathered Gale set

There are two £20,000 chases at Punchestown tomorrow with the remarkable Risk Of Thunder going for another course success in …

There are two £20,000 chases at Punchestown tomorrow with the remarkable Risk Of Thunder going for another course success in the McManus Punchestown Cup and the Irish Grand National runner-up Feathered Leader seeming to stand out in a cut up Irish Field Chase.

Risk Of Thunder returns to familiar territory after an admirable second in the Velka Pardubicka in the Czech Republic and such is his record around the Punchestown banks that he is virtually unopposable.

The novice nature of the conditions chase is that Feathered Leader may be less obvious but he should be up to scoring his first chase success on the overall look of his form.

A couple of jockeys who will be looking forward to tomorrow will probably be Paul Carberry and Jason Titley.

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The latter has an interesting ride in the novice hurdle on the top handicap chaser Function Dream. John Joe Walsh's mare won at Galway in September which seemed to set her up perfectly for the Kerry National for which she started joint favourite. However, she never got into contention and finished a tired seventh.

Clearly she is better than that and she should have enough speed to be competitive against the likes of the Gowran winner Lodge Hill and last Saturday's Tipperary bumper scorer Vanilla Man.

Titley takes the ride on the Maori-titled Awa-O-Te-Koa in the handicap hurdle. Tom Taaffe's likable charge followed up a defeat of Gypsy Melody at Listowel with a successful visit to Hexham and may be on the improve.

Carberry could confirm a fine weekend with the Fairyhouse winner Young Buck in the maiden hurdle and Total Success, who is a marginal pick in the handicap chase.

Galway Breeze, fourth to Hobart Frisbey at Tipperary last weekend, looks the one to be on in the bumper with Philip Fenton on board.

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor is the racing correspondent of The Irish Times. He also writes the Tipping Point column