Won In The Dark for Punchestown

Won In The Dark will bid to secure another Grade One success in the Eventus Marquees Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle at Punchestown on April 26th.

Sabrina Harty's gelding won at the highest level on Boxing Day and finished less than five lengths behind Celestial Halo and Franchoek at the Cheltenham Festival last month.

"Won In The Dark is heading for the Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle and is in good form at home," said Harty today. "We couldn't have been happier with him at Cheltenham. He took the travelling very well but we were disappointed that the ground came up a bit tacky for him.

"Hopefully it will be nice ground come Punchestown. He'll probably just be worked at home."

Along with his Cheltenham conquerors, Won In The Dark is among 32 entries for the valuable two-miler.

Aintree Festival winners Binocular and Pierrot Lunaire also feature among an intriguing list of possibles, 10 of which are British-trained.

Sammy The Snake, off the track for over a year, will head straight to the Curragh for a crack at the Boylesports Irish 2000 Guineas on May 24th.

The Diktat colt won the opening juvenile race of the Irish season last term and is held in high regard by trainer Brendan Duke.

"God willing, Sammy The Snake will definitely go for the Irish Guineas," said Duke today. "He is a very, very smart colt and is back in work now. I'm very happy with the way he's progressing but that will be his first port of call this season."