The last time we managed to get across to Ireland for the Punchestown Festival was in 2005. The meeting gets underway this year on Tuesday 22nd and runs through to Saturday 26th. In 2005 we were fortunate to see a splendid performance by Kicking King (pictured) who won the Punchestown Gold Cup and he goes for the race again on Wednesday. He will be a fresh horse and if he has retained a lot of his ability after recovering from injury he might well spring a surprise. Neptune Collonges won the race last year and will be a warm favourite to complete back to back wins. Another old favourite, Beef or Salmon, will be retired after running in the race. The Irish hospitality is brillant and the course entrance fees are much more reasonable than the fancy prices at the Cheltenham Festival. We will miss not being there again but we have a date with Constellation from Celebrity Cruise Lines. This means we will also miss the Sandown Park Gold Cup (the Whitbread to us old-timers) on Saturday 26th. Iris De Balme was a very easy winner of the Scottish Grand National last Saturday and could follow in the same footsteps of Hot Weld last year and complete the double.