Ireland may have dominated the Cheltenham Festival last month – winning 23 of the 28 races – but now British trained horses have one hundred thousand reasons to travel to Punchestown at the end of April to try their luck again.
Paddy has stuck his hand deep into his pocket and offered up a £100,000 bonus to any British raider who comes over to the Punchestown Festival and wins the Paddy Power Champion Hurdle.
Honeysuckle blew her rivals away last month and will be well fancied for the Friday, April 30 race at Punchestown – but now there’s an extra cash incentive for anyone across the Irish Sea who thinks they can dethrone the queen.
We're sponsoring the Punchestown Champion Hurdle later this month.
And we're offering a £100,000 bonus prize to any UK-trained winner of the race.
Come and have a go if you think you're good enough. pic.twitter.com/6lQz22KJ9K
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) April 7, 2021
The Cheltenham Champion Hurdle saw an Irish 1-2 as the unbeaten super-mare Honeysuckle romped home for Henry De Bromhead ahead of Willie Mullins’ Sharjah. Epatante finished third for Nicky Henderson and was the best of the Brits, despite being more than nine lengths off the winner.
ITV and PP News favourite Mick Fitzgerald said before the Dublin Racing Festival in February that British trainers were afraid to ‘come over to the lion’s den and take on the big guns’, while UK trainer Dan Skelton said earlier this year that Willie Mullins got ‘freebies’ in Ireland due to the lack of competition.
But now there are no excuses, and with a £100k bonus on the line, the Brits shouldn’t need any more incentive.
Unsurprisingly Honeysuckle is the antepost favourite at the moment with Epatante second in the market. It’s Irish in 3rd favouritism with Sharjah rounding off our podium at this stage.
For all the latest racing odds at Aintree, Punchestown and more, gallop over to PP.com.
Odds quoted on the widget are Future Racing / Antepost prices which means that if your selection does not run in the race for whatever reason – you will lose your stake under traditional Antepost rules
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