The Punchestown Festival is the final farewell for the National Hunt season in Ireland and Britain, with five days of stunning action at the Co Kildare home of Irish jumps racing from Tuesday 29th April - Saturday 3rd May.

There are 40 races including a dozen Grade 1 contests and a total prize pot of just over €3.5m, making the Punchestown experience truly peerless.

Here's a trio of runners that may be worth considering for the Punchestown Festival.

Punchestown Antre-post tips:

Boodles Champion Hurdle — Friday May 2nd - State Man

Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup — Wednesday 30th April — Spillane's Tower

Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle — Thursday 30th April — Rocky's Diamond

State Man to lay claim to final target

Repeat wins in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle are fairly commonplace. Hurricane Fly won four on the trot from 2010 onwards. He remains, indisputably, the greatest two-miler since Istabraq.

Honeysuckle and State Man have shared the last four renewals, successive wins for each since 2021, and it may be that the latter is now set to complete a hat-trick for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend.

He had the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in safe keeping only to come down at the final flight. Constitution Hill was an early faller in that race and has since repeated the dose at Aintree to leave his tall reputation in the mud. Nicky Henderson has talked about coming to Punchestown ever since Cheltenham but, infinitely more likely, he will put his star away for the summer.

Lossiemouth won the Aintree Hurdle and has five runs under her belt this season, that might be more than enough for Mullins and Rich Ricci to pull stumps on a mare that has proper credentials for the two mile Championship in Cheltenham next spring.

Which leaves State Man - winner of this race in the last two years. He was twice beaten by Brighterdaysahead earlier this season but was having his revenge at Cheltenham before his departure.

His Irish Champion Hurdle win before that amounted to a gallop once Lossiemouth had exited and he's had a nice break since. He's around a 7/4 chance now but could be odds-on come the day, when the alternatives have all dropped away.

Mangan's fresh challenger worth the wait

It's been a frustrating season for Spillane's Tower after such a promising start when splitting Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs in the John Durkan at this track in November.

The King George at Kempton simply didn't appear to suit, the fast nature of the track and the good ground finding him out in equal measure. Cheltenham was swerved and Aintree averted at the last minute.

He made big gains late in the spring last time, winning at Fairyhouse and here, though the proximity of Easter to Punchestown rules out a repeat.

Trainer Jimmy Mangan had no doubts about what served his star well last year, having missed Cheltenham and Aintree.

"It paid dividends last year when I stayed at home and won the two Grade 1s," he told Nick Luck's podcast. "All of the others had been to Cheltenham, and I had a fresh horse and that had a lot to do with it."

Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin won't be lining up here and neither will Ryanair scorer Fact To File. Galopin Des Champs is entered but has routinely proved vulnerable at this track.

Mangan should get his ground at Punchestown and Spillane's Tower is perhaps the forgotten horse of the season.

Diamond in the making

The Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham saw Bob Olinger denying favourite Teahupoo as owners Robcour enjoyed a one-two and Gordon Elliott had The Wallpark in third.

The one to take out of the race might be Rocky's Diamond for trainer Declan Queally, given he was the only five-year-old in the Grade 1 contest.

He has made fine strides this season, third behind Home By The Lee at Leopardstown over Christmas before his Gowran win and then that honourable Cotswolds run.

He's amongst the entries for the Champion Stayers' Hurdle at Punchestown, where some big names will be absent, and could sign off his season with another big effort.