Harry Derham’s Pinch Myself Moment

Harry Derham: To have horses going to the Punchestown Festival this early in my career is still a bit of a pinch-yourself moment

For many years, Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson led the British assault on the vast prize money on offer at the Punchestown Festival but while the venerable duo remain at the peak of their powers, the succession race is on and there is a new gang in ‘Town.

Anthony Honeyball has an amazing strike rate at Ireland’s traditional end-of-season jamboree and will be bidding extend his winning sequence to a fourth consecutive festival next week.

The Full Circle Series, designed to provide more opportunities for horses rated 130 or less, has attracted the attention of a number of Honeyball’s compatriots as a result of half of the ten qualifiers being held on the other side of the Irish Sea.

The €80,000 final takes place on Tuesday’s opening leg of the five-day carnival of jumps racing, and among the British conditioners represented are Honeyball, Ben Pauling, Tom Lacey, Venetia Williams and Charlie Longsdon.

Harry Derham does not have a horse among the 34 still standing in the final, but he plans to mark the end of his first full season as a trainer by bringing former Derby fancy, Brentford Hope and three other horses to Kildare to bag a slice of the riches on offer.

The last time Derham was in Punchestown, he was in select company, with the world ground to a halt by Covid.

As assistant trainer to his uncle, the aforementioned Nicholls, he was oversaw the preparations of two-time King George VI Chase victor, Clan Des Obeaux for the Ladbrokes Gold Cup in 2021. Given a peach of a ride by Sam Twiston-Davies, Clan held off the valiant challenge of dual Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Al Boum Photo.

They proved it could be done then, as Honeyball has more recently and Sophie Leech also did 23 months ago.

Derham may be just 29 and in the nascent stages of his new career, having saddled his first runner as a trainer at the end of 2022 after 11 years in Ditcheat, but he doesn’t like to place limits on himself.

A Cheltenham Festival winner as a jockey, who gave up riding young, the neophyte is clearly ambitious and talented but also pragmatic. He knows he is entering the lion’s den but given what Mullins, in particular, has managed everywhere from Nakayama to Auteuil, from Nashville to Melbourne and from Royal Ascot to Riyadh and that he will be crowned British champion jumps’ trainer tomorrow at Sandown, there doesn’t seem any point in running and hiding.

Go out and grab a slice of the pie for yourself is the Derham approach as he embarks on the succession trail, doing what his erstwhile boss did before him. With a strike rate of 25% since saddling his first runner towards the end of 2022, the neophyte is making his presence felt and it would be the cherry on top to come away from Punchestown with a winner.

“The first time I was in Punchestown (in 2014), I rode in the boys’ race (the Martinstown Opportunity Series Final) for John Kiely,” Derham remembers. “Gave the horse (On The Way Out) a terrible ride. Then I rode for Paul and Graham Wylie, a horse called Grandioso in a handicap chase and he ran well.

“Then I came back and represented Paul when Clan Des Obeaux won the Punchestown Gold Cup behind closed doors. It was a very odd experience because obviously you win an enormous race like that in front of about seven people!

“The two occasions I’ve been there, I’ve been blown away by the track. It’s an absolutely amazing racecourse. To have runners there next week is really cool.”

Recalling that surreal experience of three years ago, the Boxford-based handler continues: “That was a day I genuinely will never forget… You never take being part of a prestigious race like the Punchestown Gold Cup for granted.

“To me that was my favourite performance of Clan’s that day, He was really brave. It was a great performance. It was just a shame that nobody was there! I remember giving Sam a hug after and then realising, ‘Oh, you can’t do that!’

“I was struck by how well we were looked after and there was no expectation for that given Covid, so I’m looking forward to heading over there in normal times.”

Derham has nothing but respect for the record-breaking feats of Mullins and hails the Closutton supremo as a hugely positive influence on horse racing. But he will not run away if he spots an opportunity, regardless of venue or jurisdiction.

“Anthony Honeyball is a great example. He’s done fantastically well at Punchestown. It shows it can be done. Paul always said to me, ‘Wherever you’re going, whether it be Wincanton, Punchestown or Newbury, you have to have the right horses.’ If you get to the right races with the right horses then you have a chance.

“I have nothing but admiration for Willie and what he’s built. I’ve heard myself correcting a lot of people recently saying, ‘Oh it’s all right for him, he gets the best horses.’ He didn’t always get the best horses. He didn’t start with 250 horses. He’s got them because he’s the best. He’s the bar that everybody else has to get to and I don’t begrudge him anything. I think it’s phenomenal what he’s doing.

“I think he’s good for the sport and it’s something to be celebrated. I’m not going to say I’d love to get to his level as it would be a mad thing to say, but he is, without question, the person all of us jump people have to beat if we want to get to the top.”

He is fully aware how difficult it will be to saddle a winner next week but is hopeful of four good runs that will yield some nice prize money.

Brentford Hope has won five times over hurdles for The Optimists Syndicate since being bought from stout Punchestown supporters and sponsors, Seán and Bernardine Mulryan out of the Richard Hughes yard. The seven-year-old son of Camelot’s rating has increased from 114, when he won his maiden at Wincanton 13 months ago, to its current mark of 145.

Tuesday’s Listed Killashee Hotel Handicap Hurdle is the target now.

“He has been a real flagbearer for the yard. We didn’t feel Cheltenham was his track. We’ve tried to keep him to slightly more level tracks. I know Punchestown is a little bit undulating but it’s a lot more gradual than it would be at Cheltenham. A horse like him deserves to go to a festival now.

“Sir Psycho, who’s running in the Listed EMS Copiers Novice Handicap Chase on the Friday has done well for me all season. He’s run good races and it’s his last chance to run in a novice chase. It’s worth €100,000 as well. What a fantastic chance for him to run in a race like that.

“On Thursday, Molly’s Mango will run in the Listed Close Brothers Mares’ Novice Hurdle which is a nice race for mares that haven’t won graded races, which takes out a couple of the top ones like Jade De Grugy and (her former Gordon Elliott stablemate) Brighterdaysahead. Molly ran well at Cheltenham. She’s a lovely mare who’s going to go novice chasing in the autumn and there’s a lovely programme for mares’ novice chases in England but I think she will run a nice race.

“Queensbury Boy is a winner of a bumper over here. We were going to go for a valuable bumper just after Cheltenham but he wasn’t just quite right. He’s a really, really nice horse and will be a smart novice hurdler next season but he is going to take his chance in the JP & M Doyle Bumper on Thursday.”

All his owners apart from one are making the trip and the excitement is growing.

“For me, Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown are the three monster meetings of the jumps racing calendar.

“I want to win and I’m bloody competitive but to have horses going to the Punchestown Festival this early in my career is still a bit of a pinch-yourself moment. I’m certainly not taking for granted how cool it is after 18 months as a trainer to be taking four to a meeting of that magnitude.”