The festival with punch

This year's Festival, which started yesterday and runs through to Friday, marks the climax of the most momentous jumps season the fiercely patriotic Irish racing clans have experienced.

The trophies for the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Gold Cup and the Grand National are all wrapped in the tricolor, and the days when Ireland's best young stock were routinely sold off to cash-rich British buyers are long gone.

"Cheltenham and Aintree both went brilliantly for us and Irish horses have never been on such a high," added Walsh.

Visit Punchestown this week - and around 15,000 British racegoers are expected among a total crowd of 90,000 - and it's hard to believe the course was on the verge of going bust just three years ago.

A new regime has breathed fresh life into a slice of the Kildare countryside which has staged racing for over 150 years, and Dublin's sporting and social elite will be out in force according to PR manager Janet Williamson. "Samantha Mumba is judging the best-dressed lady competition on Friday," she said. "Niall Quinn is a regular visitor, and I'm sure a few of the rugby lads like Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara will be putting their heads round the door, too."

The list of equine heads popping round the door is equally impressive, although there was a major shock yesterday on day one. Moscow Flyer was beaten in a completed start over fences for the first time in 20 attempts when he was edged out in a photo finish by Rathgar Beau in the Kerrygold Champion Chase.

Gold Cup winner Kicking King tops the bill today in the Guinness Gold Cup, tomorrow sees the popular frontrunning mare Solerina in the Ballymore Properties Champion Stayers' Hurdle while Noel Meade's brilliant but enigmatic Champion Hurdle runner-up Harchibald will take centre stage in the EMO Champion Hurdle on Friday.

By comparison with Punchestown, there can be something oddly cold and clinical about Newmarket's Rowley Mile. The racing is excellent but the featureless Suffolk landscape and a largely conservative clientele seldom combine to generate a passionate atmosphere.

Just occasionally, the Newmarket crowd is fired by the emergence of a true champion. It happened when Zafonic blitzed his 2000 Guineas rivals in 1993. It happened again when Rock Of Gibraltar carried Sir Alex Ferguson's colours to victory in 2002.

And it could happen on Saturday when Dubawi bids to live up to his reputation as Godolphin's next superstar. The muscular bay is a son of Dubai Millennium, who was memorably described by his owner Sheikh Mohammed as "running with the wind of heaven between his ears" prior to his untimely death from grass sickness.

Frankie Dettori's language was a little less poetic when Dubawi made a winning debut last June. "He's a little bastard" wasn't the response the Maktoum family were expecting after that immature Goodwood performance. However, two big wins and a runaway success in a Dubai trial have made a firm believer out of the champion jockey.

"What he did in that trial confirmed he's the best we've got," said Dettori. "Only the Guineas will tell us whether he's better than the others, but he's a real fighter and we have a lot of faith in him."