Punchestown Festival: DOM’S NAP | Friday’s Best Bet

Punchestown: Court Maid | 4:50pm Hanlon Concrete Irish EBF Glencarraig Lady Francis Flood Mares Handicap Chase (Grade B) | Dom‘s Selection (+7.20 National Hunt & +13.37 for a £1 stake on daily NAP’s)

After successive bankers landed on Tuesday and Wednesday, our team have picked out our best bet of the day at Punchestown for Friday’s race action.

A chance is taken on Tony Mullins’s Court Maid, who ran a cracker in the Irish Grand National on what is her only start of the year so far to date.

She won the Porterstown in November by 13-lengths off a mark of 140, before finishing a close third at Cheltenham at the International Meeting.

Kept away for the rest of the winter by connections, she was far from disgraced in the Fairyhouse showpiece earlier this month and has been dropped 1lbs by the handicapper as she faces her own sex here.

She holds solid form over this trip, so the step back from a series of staying distance efforts isn’t an immediate negative.

Jack Brendan Foley claims a handy 7lbs off her back and she holds strong course form, winning a competitive handicap hurdle race here back in November 2018.