Punchestown or perhaps Royal Ascot are pencilled in for Poniros after his shock success in the JCB Triumph Hurdle.
The four-year-old was purchased for Tony Bloom for 200,000 guineas at the Tattersalls horses in training sale last October, leaving the ownership of Amo Racing after a Flat career when based with Ralph Beckett.
On his final start for Beckett he left the stalls as favourite for the valuable Cambridgeshire handicap at Newmarket, though he was ultimately unsuccessful when hindered by the draw.
He was one of 11 runners for Willie Mullins’ stable in the Triumph, making his hurdling debut at 100-1 as a seemingly lower ranking member of the Closutton string under Jonjo O’Neill jr.
His victory over the well-fancied duo of Lulamba and East India Dock came as a huge surprise then, and distinguishes the Golden Horn gelding as a real prospect under the National Hunt code.
He may not be quite finished on the Flat, however, with more than one option on the table for the rest of the year.
“We bought him at the horses in training sales in Tattersalls and I was really keen on him,” Sean Graham, racing manager to Bloom.
“Tony had a horse called The Reverend who won at Ascot in September and Poniros was fourth behind him having probably not had the clearest passage. I thought ‘there’s a horse that stays and will likely jump a hurdle’.
“He actually started the 6-1 favourite for the Cambridgeshire, but a mile to a mile and a quarter is probably on the sharp side for him.
“He was beaten by the draw so we put a line through that run and didn’t even judge him on it. He’d run eight times over two years so we knew he must be a tough horse.
“We bid on a couple of other horses at the sales that we didn’t get, and with the way things have transpired it was probably very fortunate because we’ve ended up with what could be a very, very exciting horse going forward.”
Should Poniros fare well in the coming weeks then Punchestown looks likely, but if he needs more downtime then Royal Ascot could come into the picture in June.
“I spoke both with Willie and David Casey (assistant trainer) and for both of them their initial thoughts were Punchestown, but we’ll just have to see how the horse comes out of the race because that was his first run over hurdles,” Graham said.
“We don’t know how much that has taken out of him, but if he tells us he’s fighting fit and healthy then I can see no reason we wouldn’t go to Punchestown with him.
“If he’d only jumped all right (at Cheltenham), completed the course and finished mid-division we’d have still been delighted, and the top two horses in the market were second and third behind him, so I don’t think there was any fluke about it.
“We’ll try not to get too excited, hopefully we’ll go to Punchestown now but if not we’ll maybe think about Royal Ascot.”
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