A LOT of planning goes into preparing for Punchestown’s five-day festival which generates an estimated 100,000 attendance, and has almost €2 million in prizemoney up for grabs to the cream of Irish National Hunt racing.

And ahead of this afternoon’s kick-off, it is the one imponderable – weather – which is concentrating minds most. Ground conditions are already verging towards very testing with a poor forecast for the week ahead, something that alters the traditional view of Punchestown as a festival unsuitable for winter sloggers and mudlarks.

Course authorities have already described the weather prospects for later this week as “bleak” with tomorrow and Thursday likely to be especially wet.

Whatever the conditions, victory for the former two-mile champion Sizing Europe in today’s featured €140,000 Boylesports Champion Chase would be a hugely popular one for a horse that in the past hasn’t quite captured the public imagination in the way he might have. That has all changed now though after a desperately unlucky Cheltenham experience when failing to defend his Queen Mother crown against Finian’s Rainbow after the sort of unforeseen debacle that little or no preparation could cater for.

No one will ever know if Sizing Europe would have held off his rival if the last fence had still been in play but there is no doubt the Irish star was the more inconvenienced of the pair as they steered around the dolled-off final obstacle.

What isn’t in doubt though is Henry De Bromhead’s runner was a conspicuously unlucky loser and Irish race fans instinctively warm to a hard-luck story. Previous to Cheltenham Sizing Europe had displayed a consistency of performance this season that arguably eluded him earlier in his career, routing the opposition in the Tingle Creek and putting his old rival Big Zeb to the sword in emphatic style here in February.

Best on good ground, he has nevertheless been admirably consistent all season and De Bromhead issued an upbeat bulletin on his progress yesterday.

“We had him out this morning and he nearly ran away with Andrew [Lynch]. He’s bouncing,” he said.

“The ground is softer than you might have expected for the time of year but it was pretty soft when he won the Tied Cottage and also in the Tingle Creek at Sandown.”

Big Zeb beat Sizing Europe in this race last year but hasn’t looked as good this term and Colm Murphy is sticking first-time cheekpieces on him in the hope he can bridge a 15-length gap from Cheltenham.

However, there were also 15-lengths between them in the Tied Cottage so a pattern is developing in which Sizing Europe is dominant.

“We could have done with nicer ground but we can’t change that,” Murphy said yesterday.

“Both him and Sizing Europe are coming to the end of long seasons, so who knows what will happen?”

The likelihood though is the pattern will remain the same.