Champion Bumper hero The Mourne Rambler will look to double his Grade One tally at next month’s Punchestown Festival.
A winner at Leopardstown over the Christmas period, the five-year-old followed up at Cheltenham a fortnight ago, providing trainer Noel Meade with his seventh Festival success and his first since Jeff Kidder landed the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle five years ago.
Six-time Irish champion Flat jockey Colin Keane was on board at Prestbury Park, but an amateur rider will have to take over when he looks to add the Race And Stay At Punchestown Champion I.N.H. Flat Race to his CV on April 29.
Meade said: “He came back from Cheltenham fine, couldn’t be better – he’s happy out.
“It’s great when they win and he looks decent. He’ll go to Punchestown hopefully if everything is OK and then he’ll have a break. We can decide what we’re going to do after that.
“We’ll certainly consider running him on the Flat, but we’ll see. We’ll get Punchestown out of the way first.”
The Tu Va stables handler had hoped to saddle his Savills Chase winner Affordale Fury in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but he pulled a muscle when pulling up in February’s Irish Gold Cup and failed to fully recover in time to make the trip to the Cotswolds.
“He just went off his feed a bit and we weren’t happy with him, so we didn’t go to Cheltenham,” Meade added.
“He’s 100 per cent sound and seems to be in good shape and he’ll go to Punchestown (Punchestown Gold Cup) as well, all being well.”
