Samain not coming. Owner said maybe Punchestown I heard.

Anybody know if Nicky is intending running Bishops Walk, heard great things about this fella before he ran, ran green beaten a neck, winners form is good bar his last race, Magniers bought him after the race

Listed in mark Howards book
Trainer LIKES him

Sire d'grugy a compliment to Kings pass yesterday?

MAKE A TRACK ^^

Anyone else heard that Beattie Green is now with David Pipe ?

make a track 25/1

Go All The Way was one of the novices I was most looking forward to seeing over hurdles this season, after his hugely promising debut bumper run. Let's just say the owners are strange, and leave it at that.

They Move him from Ireland to Hobbs. Moves back to Ireland to Dreaper. Moves back to england to Twiston. All without having had a run.

Twiston hinted the other day he's probably going to run in the bumper with his other one.

If he hasn't had any injury, and is none the worse for his 'moves about' he will run a big race.

jumped well apparently

RAISE THE BEAT WILL WIN THE BUMPER DOING HANDSTANDS

titch ,RTB worked well on monday, trainer was happy with him, he did 1 1/2 miles. Trainer very happy with him.

rothwell is happy with divine, has earmaked this race for him and says he always intended to go straight to cheltenham with him.

could be a very interesting race on good ground that both will like, on RTB at 20s and DR at 50s so would love to see both of them coming up the hill together.

Divine Rhapsody is a cracking shout lads,won a really competitive bumper on debut easily,was just looking through the form of that race and a lot of horses have won at least one race since,anoyone know why he hasnt run since though?as that was last april

Evra - check out links below.  I guess they wanted to wait for better ground..

http://www.goffs.com/News-Article.aspx?id=54

http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/p-j-rothwell-m-p-fogarty-punchestown-festival-punchestown-divine-rhapsody-makes-big-impression/706020/

http://www.pjrothwell.com/current-news.html

cheers for that meadow,they clearly think a lot of this fella,and on bare form he's entitled to be a lot shorter than his current price

Shame about Keys though was becoming less sure he would get home over the extra distance. Charlton said they were preparing him for handicapping on the flat which suggested they weren't totally committed to Cheltenham anyway.

Looks a really weak bumper year to me - Knight Pass looks a worthy favourite, as he has at least looked the part, even though he hasn't really beaten anything decent. More style than substance I suppose but he can only beat whats put in front of him. He won the same Sandown bumper as Monsignor did for the owner, so I guess they have always thought he was decent and had this race in mind. If he were trained by Mullins, Nicholls, Henderson etc he'd probably only be about 4/1.

Ericht is the solid one but dosen't look brilliant and the Irish look very ordinary to me on what they have done so far - though who knows how much improvment some of them may have, especially the ones who haven't raced since last spring/summer.

That one keeps getting tipped as the best of the Irish so maybe it is the one to be on, but it was unimpressive on it's debut and any value has long gone imo.

I am sucker...just backed Allure at the only place still offering 12's

Dont fancy it at all myself - be very surprised if Raise the beat is nt the best of the irish

The Cheltenham bumper has been an Irish benefit since its inception, with only last year’s winner, Cue Card and the ex-Irish Liberman, breaking the visitors stranglehold on the race over the past decade. Indeed ,the winner has come from this country on 14 of the 18 occasions the race has been run to date.

Willie Mullins has been responsible for an incredible six winners and is always the man bookies fear in the run up to the festival. Usually at this point each season, punters are busy guessing which is “the one” from amongst the large number of runners the trainer has to choose from. It may be different this time however, as Mullin’s two standout performers, Lovethehigherlaw and Samain look set to miss the race, as owner Michael O’Leary is not a big fan of bumpers. Killarney winner, Allure Of Illusion has been touted as the stables main hope in recent days, and has been backed accordingly.

A quick glance at this years market reveals the unusual sight of two English trained runners heading the list. The best of the Irish are the aforementioned Allure Of Illusion, Shark Hanlon’s Star Of Neuville and the Colm Murphy trained Raise The Beat.

Speaking to Sportsnewsireland on Thursday, Murphy was hopeful of a big run from his inmate: “He hasn’t really been tested at home and he really could be anything. Similar to Zaarito (3rd in 2009 bumper) he doesn’t take a lot of work and we just keep him ticking over at home”.

Owned by the Winning Ways Enigma Syndicate, the son of Beat All was highly regarded before making his debut in a Killarney bumper in May 2009. Having travelled strongly into the straight, the horse dropped right out, disappointing connections who had expected much better. Murphy believes that the race came too soon for the animal and he was given a break straight after.

“We were very disappointed after his debut as he had been showing us plenty. It probably came a bit early for him, and we decided there and then that he needed time to strengthen up, so we left him off for a year”.

A year later, Raise The Beat returned to the racecourse at Down Royal and was the impressive winner of a bumper. Given the summer off, he next appeared in a winners race at Naas over 2m 3f in October, where he showed a smart turn of foot having cruised throughout.

The step up to 2m 3f was never a worry for Murphy and having proved he stays that far, his trainer sees it as an asset with Cheltenham in mind: ” The Naas race just fitted in to our plans at the time, but I always felt he was a stayer and having shown his ability to get further than 2miles I would have no worries about him lasting home at Cheltenham”.

The group who own the horse, the Winning Ways Enigma Syndicate are one of a number of different syndicates put together by Dublin based accountant, Oran Crean. The latter has had horses with Colm Murphy going back a number of years and was one of the original owners of Brave Inca, along with the O’Tierney family. After that horses success in the 2004 Supreme Novices Hurdle, Crean bought another horse, Kimberlite King and has enjoyed plenty of success with him as well. Each new syndicate is named the Winning Ways Syndicate, but with an added designation, Enigma being the one in the case of Raise The Beat.

The ten strong Winning Ways Enigma Syndicate will be cheering loudly a week on Wednesday, as their pride and joy will be battling it out for festival honours and Ireland’s honour as the horses approach the gruelling uphill finish in the Cheltenham bumper.