Bookies can't split Albert Bartlett trio in Punchestown Novice

The first three horses home in Cheltenham's Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle renew rivalry at Punchestown this evening in the Irish Daily Mirror Novices Hurdle.

In Cheltenham the Henry de Bromhead trained Minella Indo caused one of the shocks of the meeting when posting a two lengths victory at odds of 50/1 over Commander Of Fleet with Allaho a further seven lengths adrift in third.

The three horses run again today with the same jockeys, on identical weight terms, over the same distance and on similar ground conditions but both punters and bookmakers are struggling to find a clear favourite.

By shopping around punters can get 7/2 on each of the three horses with 4/1 in a place or two about Minella Indo.

There didn't appear to be any fluke about Minella Indo's performance at Cheltenham and according to de Bromhead the win was not unexpected:

"He was disappointing at Limerick the first day, but he has kidded me completely. He is a chancer at home and we hadn’t got him fit enough and he got very tired.

“He ran really well at Clonmel (when second to Allaho) and we had to do all the donkey work. We felt we would get a stronger-run race in Cheltenham, so we thought we would take the chance.

“We’d been racing for a long way in fairness, but he is tough. I thought I had him fully fit at Clonmel, but he took another huge blow.

Gordon Elliott said of the runner-up at Cheltenham: “We were beaten by a better horse on the day. We will think about Punchestown, but I’m in no rush with him, he’s only a baby.”

Mullins was similarly satisfied with Allaho, adding: “I’m delighted with his run today. I’m really looking forward to going novice chasing with him next year. He’s a real chaser in the making.”