NAP of the Day: Lane can mow down Lecky in Punchestown cracker

Cold and wet conditions continue to disrupt the British and Irish racing schedule and Sunday’s meeting at Kelso fell by the wayside long before the weekend, but punters still have two meetings to take in with an all-weather card at Lingfield and a high-profile one over jumps at Punchestown. The Grade 2 Moscow Flyer Novices' Hurdle (14:25) is the feature race on the card at Punchestown and it will be fascinating to see how Salvator Mundi fares on his first start in May.  

He is prominent in ante-post lists for novice hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival and has seemingly been found a sub-par running for a race his trainer, Willie Mullins, loves to target with his best novice. Our best bet on the card comes an hour and a half earlier, though, with the Grade 3 novice chase (12:55) looking well worth playing in. 

12:55 Punchestown Odds

Willie Mullins may hold the key to the Moscow Flyer with Salvator Mundi, but Lecky Watson looks a more vulnerable favourite for the yard in the Grade 3 novice chase. 

The seven-year-old made a bright start to his chasing career by defeating Supreme winner Slade Steel first time out in December, but the Supreme form has taken knock after knock and Lecky Watson is probably going to be a three-miler in due course. 

Admittedly so is Down Memory Lane, but he'd have taken plenty from the experience of racing against pure two-milers in a Grade 1 novice at Sandown last time out and can put that to good use over an extra half a mile. 

He struggled in going such a hot pace in the early part of the contest, putting in a few suspect leaps, but his jumping eventually warmed up and he gave the impression he'd be one to follow over a longer distance. 

The Gordon Elliott-trained runner comes out well clear on adjusted Racing Post Ratings in this field and has a stranglehold over Lecky Watson in that department, while he was most impressive on his chasing debut on his previous outing at Navan, putting high-class stablemate King Of Kingsfield to the sword with an accomplished display.  

The selection arrives with a big reputation (went off a short price for a Grade 1 two-mile novice hurdle only three starts back) and this point-to-point winner appears set to come into his own now. 

There should be a significant amount of improvement under the bonnet and he makes more appeal than high-class stablemates Farren Glory and Search For Glory for this sort of test. 

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