RACING NEWS ROUND-UP:THE TOP cross-country chaser Garde Champetre will be an intriguing starter in Easter Monday's Powers Whiskey Irish Grand National where local jockey Nina Carberry will attempt to continue a remarkable family tradition.
Racing's most famous female rider is unbeaten in five starts on Garde Champetre over the cross-country course at Cheltenham and the banks track at Punchestown and will attempt to stretch that record to a regular park track in six days' time.
If Carberry manages that she will follow in the footsteps of her brothers Paul and Philip who have won the Fairyhouse feature on Bobbyjo (1998) and Point Barrow (2006) respectively. Carberry's father Tommy trained Bobbyjo and won the National twice as a jockey on Brown Lad in 1975-76.
Garde Champetre scored at the Cheltenham festival for the second year running last month when out-pointing his stable companion L'Ami in the Sporting Index Cross-Country Chase but will be facing regular park fences for the first time in over two years since running behind Butler's Cabin in the 2007 National Hunt Chase. However he did run fourth to Powserstation in a hurdle race at Thurles in October.
"He's in great nick and the plan is to go to Fairyhouse," trainer Enda Bolger confirmed yesterday. "He was in excellent form after Cheltenham and JP (McManus) said to stick him in the Irish National. He was in the English National too but we've decided to stay at home. Nina will ride again. Nothing will change there! His last two runs have been brilliant and he has come out of the Cheltenham well. He has 10st 6lb at the moment but they could go up if Notre Pere comes out. I wouldn't like the ground too soft as he is a real daisy-cutter," he added.
The Cheltenham cross-country race has a National pedigree already as the 2007 runner-up Silver Birch went on to land the Aintree Grand National that year. Garde Champetre is currently a general 16 to 1 shot in ante-post betting for Fairyhouse. Topping the ante-post lists is another McManus-owned Cheltenham winner, the William Hill Chase victor, Wichita Lineman who is as low as 7 to 1 in some books. Arbor Supreme is another possible contender for McManus.
The champion owner scored with Butler's Cabin two years ago and also with the Edward O'Grady trained Bit Of A Skite 26 years ago. Jim Dreaper has described the Welsh National winner Notre Pere as an intended starter at Fairyhouse but the confirmed mudlark will need yielding ground at least in order to line up. The going at Fairyhouse yesterday was good to yielding but with an unsettled forecast for the week ahead.
Ferdy Murphy won the Irish National in 2004 with Granit D'Estruval and the Yorkshire- based trainer will try again on Monday with Poker De Sivola. The horse ran seventh to Character Building in the Kim Muir at Cheltenham last month and Murphy will hope to go one better than with Nine De Sivola who was runner-up to Butler's Cabin in 2007.
"Poker De Sivola will go to Ireland next Monday. He is very well and he ran a good race in the Kim Muir" said Murphy who plans to run both Nine De Sivola and Hot Weld in the Scottish National at Ayr later in the month.
The next forfeit stage for the Irish National will take place tomorrow but that won't be a concern to Charles Byrnes who is prepared to take his time about whether or not his Aintree Hurdle winner Solwhit will line up at Punchestown on May 1st.
The Rabobank Champion Hurdle on the fourth day of the festival is a possible season-finale for Solwhit but Byrnes said yesterday: "We will enter him in the two miler and see how he is nearer the time. He is back home safely and seems to have taken the race well".
Punchestown have teamed up with Ryanair for an unusual festival promotion as the airline have purchased 5,000 general admission tickets for the five days and will present them free on a first come first-served basis to customers who purchase tickets from the UK to Dublin on any of the five days of the festival.
