Stumptown, dark green with yellow stars © Photo Healy Racing
Gavin Cromwell is hoping that Stumptown's victory over the banks course at the Punchestown Festival could reinvigorate him on the road to a potential crack at the Grand National.
The 149-rated chaser actually appeared twice over the banks course during the festival with a loose horse causing him to unseat after six out in the La Touche. However, it was a different story on the final day when he readily asserted to win by five and a-half lengths in the Donohue Marquees Cross Country Steeplechase.
Cromwell said: "It did (class came to the fore over the banks) and I'd say he benefitted a lot from his run in the La Touche, he learned a lot.
"It opens lots of doors and he enjoyed it. There is a good programme of those type of races. We might mix and match (handicap chasing).
"Those big field handicaps, if he got squeezed up at all or missed a fence, he just got shuffled back.
"It absolutely could reinvigorate him and we could maybe go the cross-country route, and he could potentially go to the Grand National if it sweetened him up."
