What to expect from the Punchestown Festival 2022

With the 2022 Irish Grand National and UK Grand National now both out of the way, we can turn our attention to the eagerly awaited Punchestown Festival which provides us with five days of top-quality racing. The action gets underway on Tuesday, 26th April 2022 and the indications are that this could be the biggest Festival yet in terms of attendances with officials anticipating the biggest crowds in the meeting’s lengthy history.

Massive interest in the five-day racing extravaganza comes hot on the heels of a record-breaking Irish Grand National with Fairyhouse seeing the biggest crowd for a decade as over 15,000 racegoers enjoyed a party-like atmosphere. Indeed Punchestown saw the biggest single-day attendance three years ago when 37,207 descended upon the venue and 126,840 attended throughout the five days of the Festival the same year, a figure which is expected to be exceeded this time around.

Day One of the 2022 Festival is dominated by the Punchestown Champion Chase and all eyes will be on Energumene in this race, the eight-year-old having got the job done with relative ease in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last month. The likes of Shishkin and Chacun Pour Soi perished in the gruelling conditions at Prestbury Park but Energumene made it look easy and will be looking to complete an excellent season on the opening day at Punchestown. You can be sure of the best betting odds on the opening day of the meeting by visiting Betting Sites Ireland where you can also claim some exclusive promotions on all the key races plus a wealth of price boosts and enhanced places.

Having also been aimed elsewhere at the Festival, Allaho will likely run in the Punchestown Gold Cup on the second day of the meeting, the Willie Mullins-trained runner having triumphed in the last two renewals of the Cheltenham Ryanair Chase in impressive fashion. Nevertheless with no option to take his eight-year-old over that trip at Punchestown, Mullins was faced with the prospect of aiming him against his own Chacun Pour Soi and Energumene over the two mile Champion Chase or send him over three miles instead. The Gold Cup is the subject of many great bookmaker offers such as price boosts, free bets and enhanced places and you can find out more about these promotions by visiting Betting Sites UK.

Later in the day, Facile Vega will be the subject of everyone’s attention in the Grade One bumper. This is one of the most exciting horses in training right now and he demonstrated his class in the Champion Bumper where he hinted that he may be the next big star for trainer Willie Mullins. He has been the subject of much interest in this race and after a break will start what could prove to be an exciting novice hurdle campaign.

Having scored her 15th consecutive win and second Champion Hurdle, it would have been something of a shock not to see Honeysuckle make an appearance in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle on Day Four of the Festival. She gave us a workmanlike performance last season but still produced a convincing display when beating Sharjah and you can get the best odds on this race by visiting Free Bets Ireland where you can also claim some exclusive free bet bonuses throughout the five days of the meeting.

The Irish enjoyed a clean sweep in the Triumph Hurdle on the final day of the 2022 Cheltenham Festival and Vauban powered himself to victory in what was a speed test in this Grade One contest. The Champion Four Year Old Hurdle on the final day of Punchestown is certainly the next logical step for this runner and we expect him to put in a solid display throughout this closing-day race.

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Suzanne Ashton

Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.