War of Attrition Wins Punchestown Festival Feature

War of Attrition wins Punchestown Festival feature and is now clear Cheltenham Gold Cup Favourite and is the star of the staying chasers and he lived up to his billing just as Newmill had done over two miles on Tuesday, when seeing off his rivals with the minimum of fuss at Punchestown on Wednesday. In the process he matched what Kicking King's had done last year by completing the Cheltenham Gold Cup-Guinness Gold Cup.

Cheltenham Gold Cup Ante Post Betting

Described after his comfortable two-and-a-half-length win from Beef Or Salmon as "as good as any horse I've ridden" by Conor O'Dwyer, War Of Attrition made all the running and jumped well virtually throughout.

Although the winner jumped to the left at a few fences neither O'Dwyer nor trainer Mouse Morris were in the least perturbed. Totesport trimmed his odds to 7-2 (from 5) for the 2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup, William Hill went 5-1 (from 6) and Cashmans 9-2 (from 6).

Morris said: "We were quite prepared for him having to make the running and it was up to Conor to do what he wanted. The fact that he was on his own and idling a bit probably accounted for him jumping to the left at times.

"This horse has everything. He jumps and stays well and he also has plenty of pace. Don't ask me about plans for next year. He's off out on grass and we'll start thinking about what we might do next season in June or July."

Morris added somewhat ominously: “He is just starting to come right and is learning every day. He is getting moreand more into it.”

Grass in this case means owner Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown House Stud in Co Westmeath and, according to O'Leary, the only definite date the seven year old is May 6 when he will be paraded at Kilbeggan racecourse.

O’Leary said: “I don't think we will realise what he has done until the summer. “To win one Gold Cup is a dream but to win two is beyond the realms of avarice.”

O'Dwyer, winning the Grade 1 event for the first time under its present guise - he won it as a 22-year-old on Doubtful Venture in 1988 when a handicap - said: "War Of Attrition has everything and you can ride him anyway you want.

“He came up on his own at the third last and gave me a bit of a fright, but I think he was just checking that I was awake."

War Of Attrition returned to a big reception from the crowd and fully deserved all the plaudits, but Beef Or Salmon did much to erase the memories of his Cheltenham and Aintree performances by finishing a creditable second.

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