Its On The Line brings up a Punchestown hat-trick

Image © Healy Racing

For the third year in a row, Its On The Line landed the Event Power Champion Hunter Chase at the Punchestown Festival.

Having skipped the Aintree Foxhunters this year, a race that he had won 12 months earlier, the eight-year-old was sent off as the odds-on favourite under his regular pilot Derek O’Connor.

However, he was one of just two horses to ever get into contention, with the sole British raider, Virofly, setting a blistering pace under his rider-trainer Olive Nicholls.

That eight-year-old clocked fractions that few of his 13 rivals could live with, and leaving the back straight, it was only Its On The Line and Ellen Doyle’s Ciel De Neige who were able to try and give chase.

The latter paid that price for that and was threading water by the third-last fence, as all-the-while, Derek O’Connor’s mount began to eat into the advantage of his main market rival.

Those trailblazing tactics had pulled off in Kempton for Viroflay, but once Its On The Line made his way to the front, he was able to snugly record a two and a quarter length victory.

The pair pulled a yawning 35 lengths clear of Hollow Games, with Ontheropes, the only other finisher from the 14 that set out.

“He has been a tremendous servant,” O’Connor said. “The fast pace suited him, I’d say after two miles there wasn’t another horse in the race.

“I was struggling to get him to accept chasing, he was a bit reluctant to chase, but I think when he felt he was getting the better of Olive Nichols’ horse he rallied for me and then idled in front like he always does.

“He runs in snatches. Emmet and myself never really chat about riding instructions with this fella because you take what you are given. Some days he loves company, some days he loves being in beside horses, and then some days he doesn’t.”

The victory was a fifth in the race for O’Connor, 18 years after his first triumph in the most coveted hunter chase on Irish soil, when Joe Blake was success in 2007.