Over the Banks at Punchestown 



THAT spin we had over Fairyhouse a few days before 

 the National has aroused the steeplechasing spirit in 

 your veins or you wouldn't have asked me to take you 

 round the Punchestown course. 



While we're jogging over to the starting post I'll give 

 you a few tips that may prevent your arriving home in 

 an ambulance. Now, although Fairyhouse and Punches- 

 town have, apparently, a good deal in common, actually 

 they are as different as chalk and cheese. Both are 

 steeplechases of a very high order, both are honoured 

 by the cream of Ireland's bloodstock, both are old- 

 established racing carnivals that have no rivals in this 

 country, but there the similarity ceases. Fairyhouse 

 has modernised built-up fences and regulations. Pun- 

 chestown adheres gallantly to nature in the raw : single 

 banks, double banks, stone walls, drop ditches and 

 brooks. 



We'll begin our gallop at the starting post for the 

 Bishopscourt Cup. There are really three separate 

 courses and five starting points, but as our horses would 

 drop from exhaustion if we went round all of them, I 

 suggest we take the old course. Don't let your grey 

 rush too madly at the first few single banks till he gets 

 a taste of the type of fences in this part of the world. 



