A - ZRunners Horse Racing Fixtures and Results

Ratings Update: King George clues aplenty

John Ingles provides the Timeform reaction to the weekend's significant performances at Punchestown, Haydock and Ascot.

Chasers

On a weekend which offered plenty of clues for the King George in a month’s time, it was Gaelic Warrior (173 from 169) who made the strongest case with a thrilling neck defeat of stablemate Fact To File (174 from 173) in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase. The pair were two of Willie Mullins’ six in the line-up, and in finishing a long way clear of the rest in a race where the order changed little, it was clear that there was a stark difference in readiness between the first two and the remainder of the field who finished at wide intervals, among them Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin who was a remote fifth. The fact that this was just a starting point for the season ahead for several in the field guards against taking the bare result at face value, but it still took a career-best from Gaelic Warrior to get the better of last year’s winner.

Gaelic Warrior was helped by being able to poach a lead of a dozen lengths by halfway, but Fact To File had pegged him back going to the last before Gaelic Warrior showed a battling side that hasn’t always been required to edge back in front. The winner will go to Kempton now, while Fact To File, who ran right up to his best, will presumably remain at short of three miles on the way to a defence of his Ryanair Chase crown in the spring.