PUNCHESTOWN FESTIVAL:SIZING EUROPE is firmly on course to try to confirm his position as the top two-mile chaser around when he lines up at Punchestown next month. Henry De Bromhead yesterday confirmed his stable star will head the field in the Boylesports Champion Chase on the first day of the Punchestown festival.
That will mean a probable rematch with the former champ Big Zeb who he beat by five lengths in the Queen Mother at Cheltenham last month. “That kind of told us two miles is what we should be doing with him,” De Bromhead said yesterday. “He’s in great form and my opinion is the better the ground – the better his chance. He has such a big stride and good ground lets him use it.”
Another mouth-watering clash between a pair of champions looks set to take place in the €160,000 Rabobank Champion Hurdle between Hurricane Fly and Binocular.
Hurricane Fly has been ear-marked for the €160,000 Rabobank Champion Hurdle on May 6th ever since his dramatic defeat of Peddlers Cross at Cheltenham, a race where Binocular was unable to defend his title due to concerns about medication used to treat an allergy still being in his system.
Binocular returned to action at Liverpool on Saturday when he could finish only fourth to Oscar Whiskey in the Aintree Hurdle but looks set for a step back to two miles at Punchestown.
“He came out of the race good and there are no problems with him. Nobody can really put their finger on why he didn’t finish his race off so well. He travelled well to the third last, but he was beat from there home,” said Frank Berry, racing manager to owner JP McManus yesterday.
“Nothing has shown up and he seems in good old form,” he added.
Encouraging reports on jockey
THERE WERE encouraging reports yesterday about Co Meath-born jockey Peter Toole who woke up for a period from a medically-induced coma that he had been put under following his fall at Aintree on Saturday, writes Brian O’Connor.
The 22-two-year old jockey suffered bleeding on the right side of his brain in the fall and remains in hospital in Liverpool.
However, a CT scan returned negative results yesterday and when Toole woke up he was able to move his legs. “His body is okay and he woke up from the induced coma and he was moving his legs. They then put him back under. I’ve spoken to his father and it is a case of so far – so good. Everything is as good as it can be at this stage,” said trainer Charlie Mann who employs Toole.
The Irish jockey officially remains in a critical but stable condition at the Walton Centre in Liverpool.
