Punchestown tips for Saturday: Identity Thief return stars on a competitive day

De Bromhead looking forward to seeing his charge back in action

A seven-race card at Punchestown gives followers of Irish racing a real interest for Saturday afternoon, with the 3.35 and 4.10 events of particular interest.

A two-mile beginners chase, due to post at 3.35, is open to four-year-olds and above with nine-runners expected to go to post. Of that field, Identity Thief has attracted most attention and is sure to be a popular choice amongst punters on the day.

The Henry de Bromhead trained six-year-old gelding boasts a CV of four wins and four places from 10 career starts, and is expected to enhance that with a comeback victory here. The highly-rated hurdler makes his debut over fences and that’s something followers have had marked down in their diary for a while now.

He was last seen finishing runner-up behind Vroum Vroum Mag at this course in April, which goes down as a big effort, but is better remembered for exploding out of the boxes last term, winning the Hurdle at Down Royal in October before following up in the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle a couple of weeks later.

Trainer de Bromhead told reporters that he was delighted with the way Identity Thief has been working at home, and was looking forward to seeing him in action again on Saturday. He assured punters that this race was their main concern but expected to move things forward from there.