talkSPORT betting tips – Best racing bets and expert advice for Punchestown Festival Day 4
The Punchestown Festival reaches day four on Friday and there are another pair of Grade 1 races to savour from Ireland's end of season National Hunt showpiece.
The Boodles Champion Hurdle will see State Man and Constitution Hill squaring off once more, while there's a cracking Champion Novice Hurdle just before the main dish. Our three best bets from Friday's card at Punchestown are below.
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Punchestown Festival Day 4 Tips
- 18.05 Punchestown – Lovely Hurling –
- 18:40 Punchestown – Constitution Hill –
- 19:10 Punchestown – Fiver Friday –
18.05 Punchestown – Lovely Hurling –
Willie Mullins had plenty of success here at the start of the meeting but some short-priced favourites were also turned over.
The Closutton chief has three runners here, with Final Demand seemingly the pick of them under Paul Townend. He's respected but he was third in the Turners Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham over this sort of trip, with the reopposing The Yellow Clay second to top-class British prospect The New Lion for Dan Skelton.
The Yellow Clay looks the most likely winner for Gordon Elliott, but with nine runners, an each-way play is advised instead on LOVELY HURLING for trainer Colm Murphy.
The Walk In The Park gelding was beaten on his debut in a Fairyhouse maiden in March 2024 but has won a Wexford bumper and a Naas maiden (2m2½f, soft) in two starts since.
He was back from 255 days off when easily scoring at Naas, in a race that has worked out very nicely, and he scored with any amount in hand under Mark Walsh. This demands another chunk of improvement but he should have plenty more to give and appeals as a lively outsider at double-figure odds.
18:40 Punchestown – Constitution Hill –
Nicky Henderson has a long tradition of bringing good horses to Punchestown and while nothing satisfies the Irish more than winning races at Cheltenham in March at the expense of their hosts, there is also massive appreciation from the local racing public when a top-class British raider comes and does a number at this meeting.
Talk of CONSTITUTION HILL coming here first surfaced after his Supreme Novices' win at Cheltenham in 2022, when a clash with Honeysuckle was mooted, but it has taken a long time to materialise.
The Seven Barrows star now arrives in Ireland after falls at Cheltenham and Aintree saw his veneer of invincibility shattered. He is seeking a redemptive win and will have to get it without Nico de Boinville on his back for the first time in his career under Rules.
James Bowen takes over and it would be most Henderson-like to get this fallen star back to his best for this Punchestown raid.
State Man would have won the Champion Hurdle had he stood up at the last, and Cheltenham scorer Golden Ace needs to prove she can beat that star duo at their best, while County Hurdle winner Kargese has more on her plate.
Constitution Hill will surely have sharpened his ideas in terms of jumping after ending up on the floor twice and he's taken to get off the canvas and bring down the house at Punchestown.
19:10 Punchestown – Fiver Friday – SP
Rated 90 on the Flat, The Gurkha mare FIVER FRIDAY made a seamless transition to hurdling when scoring at Naas over 2m (good to yielding) at the start of April for Paul Traynor.
She has been to Kelso since and finished third behind a couple of older rivals with some promising form already in the book, the front three having pulled miles clear in what could prove a race worth following.
Fiver Friday is now back taking on mostly her own peers and she has scope for better, while her rider's 5lb claim is another asset. She looks another for each-way support at the forecast odds.
*all odds correct at time of writing and subject to change
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