Punchestowns swerves Festival

With just 12 days to go before the 2011 Cheltenham Festival, Nicky Henderson has effectively ruled Punchestowns out of running at Prestbury Park and is considering giving the chestnut a run at the racecourse which has lent him his name.

Although entered in both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the World Hurdle, Henderson is looking away from those events. Punchestowns finally managed a win this season with a fairly unconvincing defeat of Pasco at Kempton last month.

"I think we can say Punchestowns won't be here," said the trainer at a Cheltenham press conference yesterday.

"I don't think he'll win a Gold Cup or a World Hurdle so we are better to stay out of it. There's Aintree and we've always said he should run at Punchestown one year. Maybe it could be this year. That would be over fences."

Henderson admitted the publication of the weights for the Festival handicaps yesterday had thrown him into confusion. His Molotof is the top weight for the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle while A Media Luz, who was to be diverted to the Triumph Hurdle instead, has 11st 4lb.

He said: "Our plans have rather fallen out of synch, especially with the four-year-olds. What we thought was sorted a fortnight ago has now fallen out of order - some are now in and some are now out - and we need to go away and have a think."

Henderson said it was "more likely than unlikely" that Riverside Theatre would contest the Ryanair Chase after a brief chat with connections this week while he has not made up his mind about a Cheltenham target for French Opera. The Game Spirit Chase winner is top weight of 11st 12lb - 6lb higher than next best Tchico Polos - in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase.

However much the trainer would like to win the event commemorating his father, he is also considering the sportingbet.com Queen Mother Champion Chase.

He added: "I haven't discussed it with the owner yet. He and Mad Max are in both races. On the one hand it could help horses like Anquetta at the bottom of the weights, and I could claim off French Opera, but on the other they all have different owners."

The unveiling of weights for the Cheltenham Festival handicaps impacted various betting markets.

For Non Stop, the biggest early gamble for a Festival handicap, could carry just 10st 2lb in his bid to land a major plunge in the Coral Cup - but the classy youngster needs a host of horses to defect if he is win a place in the line-up.

A maximum of 28 runners are allowed to compete in the £70,000 contest, for which For Non Stop, recently cut to best-price 8/1 favourite, has been handed a feather weight by the BHA's handicapping team.

However, with 65 entries due to carry more weight than the novice, trainer Nick Williams - who has also entered For Non Stop in the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle - faces an anxious wait.Blackstairmountain has been cut for the Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle. Willie Mullins’ six-year-old has been allotted 10st 9lb for the two-mile event with Overturn and Celestial Halo topping the weights at 11st 12lb.

Blackstairmountain showed plenty of promise as a novice to be of interest in a race like the County Hurdle and the fact that we’ve only seen him twice this term suggests that this has very much been the plan all season. He can be backed at best-price 16/1 at the time of writing.

In other races, Definity has joined Divers and Quantitativeeasing at the head of the market for the Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase.

Kilcrea Kim is now 14/1 joint-favourite for the Pertemps Final alongside Barafundle, Chartreux, Mister Hyde and Sivota.

Dynaste is the new 10/1 favourite for the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle, whilst both Williams Wishes and Snap Tie have been trimmed for the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual, which currently has Tanks For That at best-price 8/1 favourite.

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