Punchestown Tips: Sandor Clegane can win competitive Florida Pearl

On a truly super Saturday, this classy eight-race card – which sees the popular Gaelic Warrior make his chasing debut – from Punchestown is a definite highlight.

The feature is a red-hot renewal of the Florida Pearl Novice Chase, which is contested by one of my two selections for the card.

13:23 – Sandor Clegane @ 11/4

As I just alluded to, the most competitive and certainly informative contest at Punchestown on Saturday has to be the Florida Pearl.

Seven go to post for the three-mile affair, and none would be surprise winners in my book – even the rank outsider Churchstonewarrior, although his five-pound penalty dampens enthusiasm.

The one I like most is Paul Nolan’s Sandor Clegane.

The six-year-old was a big drifter before his chasing debut at Fairyhouse the other week which, under the circumstances, I thought was an extremely encouraging start.

Two miles was always going to be too short, but I liked the way he jumped and stuck to his job, despite victory never being in sight. That should have put him spot on for this.

His third in the Albert Bartlett at the Cheltenham Festival gives him a leading chance here. Affordale Fury beat him that day but the selection was an unlucky loser having found trouble in running after taking the widest trip of all, and he can get revenge over the bigger obstacles.

13:58 – Idas Boy @ 13/2

Just over half-an-hour later is a handicap chase over slightly further than 2m5f. All the top Irish trainers – namely Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry De Bromhead – feature, but it’s the only ‘other’ representative that I’ve taken a liking to.

That’s Noel Meade’s Idas Boy, who is very unexposed for a nine-year-old. He’s so lightly-raced, in fact, that this is his first attempt in handicap company.

He goes off a mark of 142, which looks workable in this company. He loves heavy ground over this intermediate trip, he goes very well fresh and has the talented Sam Ewing on board.

In a competitive race, he’s worth a couple of quid.