Punchestown Festival 2025: Top Tips for Day 5
As the Brits have been on a roll at the Punchestown Festival, we have chosen three English raiders as our bet selections for Saturday’s racing.
Key Facts:
- Honeyball’s Jasmin De Grugy can give Brits another winner.
- Can Lulamba turn the table on Bloom’s Poniros?
- Wellington Arch is seeking back-to-back Festival handicap success.
Saturday’s Punchestown meeting is likely to attract the biggest attendance of the festival week. © Roy Brindley
More British trainers have visited Punchestown’s winner’s enclosure this week than even the most astute judges could have predicted. One day of the famous Festival is left, meaning the British invasion may not yet be over.
Dorset’s Anthony Honeyball has a prime contender in the 4.15 pm, the Palmerstown House Estate Pat Taaffe Handicap Chase. Since this time last year, his Jasmin De Grugy has won five races on the bounce, shooting up the handicap in the process.
Nevertheless, the JP McManus-owned French-bred gets into this contest off of the bottom weight of 10-stone. He may have to overcome a slightly disappointing last-time-out effort but there is a suspicion soft ground may have played its part.
Lulamba Will Not Hit the Post Again
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. Chairman Tony Bloom owns 100/1 Cheltenham Festival scorer Poniros, who will go off at a fraction of those odds in Punchestown’s 4.50 pm, the Ballymore Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle.
Despite his ownership, the former flat-racer is Irish-trained, and he has just a neck to spare (on Cheltenham Triumph Hurdle form) over Nicky Henderson inmate, Lulamba. This time, Nico de Boinville will not be in the saddle, and that could work to the advantage of the British raider.
The sun is shining on day two of the 2025 #PunchestownFestival and a winning favourite has been very welcome. pic.twitter.com/YKYTQlg5xi
— Sports & Betting History by BestBettingSites (@BettingSitesCom) April 30, 2025
Arch Can Bridge 7-Pound Penalty
The Jonjo & A J O’Neill stable has brought a small team to Punchestown and it hit the target on Thursday when Petit Tonnerre landed a big-field handicap chase. There could be further success courtesy of Wellington Arch – boasting 212121 form figures – who is fancied in the 5.25 pm, a handicap hurdle.
This race is a big field contest, and, with SP overrounds being miserly this week (up to 140 percent on Thursday), our advice is to shop around for the very best odds – and the ‘best odds guaranteed’ concession – on our selection (or whatever you are backing) with the leading horse racing betting sites.
Wellington Arch gets our vote based on his success at the Aintree Festival at the beginning of April. Making much of the running and setting a strong pace against 19 rivals, his winning performance can be marked up by more than the seven pounds the handicapper has since handed this likeable six-year-old.
Punchestown Day 5 Best Bets
- 4.15 pm Jasmin De Grugy
- 4.50 pm Lulamba
- 5.25 pm Wellington Arch
BestBettingSites.com’s 2025 Punchestown Festival Preview provides full details on how to watch and bet on the action from Irish jumps racing’s premier meeting.
