Walk Away

The other horse to take out of Friday’s EMS Copiers Novice Handicap Chase from Punchestown is Walk Away. He was smartly away, but he was a little sticky over the first couple of fences, with the result that he was a little worse than mid-division going up past the stands first time. He warmed to his task though, he made progress down the back straight to move up just behind the leaders before they left the back straight. He moved into third up on the outside at the third last fence and he travelled well into the home straight and, while he couldn’t go with Asterion Forlonge, who pulled away from his rivals like a high-class individual, he kept on well up the run-in to finish a good second, five lengths clear of Port Stanley in third.

It was a fine performance by Henry de Bromhead’s horse on this, his first run in over 200 days. He is a talented individual, he finished fourth behind Champ, Emitom and Lisnagar Oscar in the Grade 1 Sefton Hurdle at Aintree in 2019, and he finished second behind Faugheen in his beginners’ chase at Punchestown the following November. He has obviously had his issues, he only raced three times that season, and he had only raced once in the 2020/21 season before last Friday, but he proved there that he retains lots of ability. As mentioned in the context of Fils D’Oudairies, the EMS Copiers Novice Chase is a good pointer to the future, and it is a particularly good pointer to the Galway Plate, with six of the last 10 winners of the Galway Plate contesting the Punchestown race three months earlier, and it is interesting that Henry de Bromhead trained two of those six. Walk Away goes well on goodish ground too, so he could be an ideal type for Galway, and his mark of 136 could be just about high enough to get him into the Galway race on a good racing weight. And, as with Fils D’Oudairies, even if he doesn’t make the Galway line-up, he will be of interest wherever he goes next.
Punchestown, 30^th April 2021