Bioluminesence

Bioluminescence looked good in winning the mares’ maiden hurdle at Punchestown on Monday. Prominent from early, she moved into the lead on the run to the home turn and, while it appeared as if Paggane was travelling a little better than her as they straightened up, she picked up nicely in the home straight, jumped the final flight well and kept on nicely all the way to the line.

Gavin Cromwell’s mare is improving quickly now. She left the impression here that she was winning with a fair bit in hand, and she was still over four seconds faster than Billericay Dickie was in winning the rated novices’ hurdle a half an hour later. Her form is working out well too. On her previous run she finished second to Look To The West, who finished third in the Grade 3 Solerina Hurdle on Saturday, the pair of them clear, and on her last run before that, in a bumper at Limerick last March, she finished second to Junta Marvel, who won a Grade 3 bumper at Punchestown next time. She is bred for stamina, she is a stayer in the making, a staying chaser in-waiting. She does hold an entry in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, but that might be too sharp a test for her, and a more interesting target might be the two-and-a-half-mile Grade 1 mares’ novices’ hurdle at Fairyhouse at Easter, the Honeysuckle Hurdle, a race that Bioluminescence’s owner and trainer, JP McManus and Gavin Cromwell, teamed up to win in 2016 with Jer’s Girl, the trainer’s first Grade 1 winner.

Punchestown, 29^th January 2024