Uttoxeter could beckon for My Immortal after surprise Punchestown strike
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Sun 15 Feb 2026
A mid-March trip to Uttoxeter could be on the cards for My Immortal following his surprise success in the 1xbet.ie Grand National Trial at Punchestown, the first leg of a double on the card for trainer Barry Connell.
My Immortal had been disappointing on his two previous starts this season, finishing down the field on his Galway reappearance before pulling up at Leopardstown over the Christmas period.
The 10-year-old was a 40-1 shot for this €100,000 prize and having been up with the pace from the start, he found plenty for amateur jockey Finny Maguire to score by five lengths from Uncle Pat.
Connell said: “We ran him in Galway in October and it’s usually bottomless there, but I ran three horses and they all came back jarred.
“I ran him back in Leopardstown and the ground was grand for horses that want good ground but he just didn’t like it, minded himself and pulled himself up.
“The way that he’s been working at home I was expecting a big run from him today. All we needed was the ground – he’d stay any trip.
“I might enter him for the Midlands Grand National National (at Uttoxeter, March 14). He’s going to get 10lb for winning today, so that would make him 135 and he’d probably get in off bottom weight.
“I might stick him in the Leinster National as well, that closes next week, and he could be one for the Welsh National next year.”
My Immortal was running without headgear for the first time since the autumn of 2024, and his trainer added: “He wasn’t wearing the cheek pieces at home and we actually put a visor on him last year, but you may as well be putting a cornflake packet on his head!”
Connell made it two from two on the afternoon in the EVAD Technology Group Maiden Hurdle, with former Willie Mullins inmate Ksar Fatal making a successful hurdling debut on his first start for the yard.
The 11-8 shot was strongly pressed by the Mullins-trained 10-11 favourite Dani Donadoni in the straight, but Ksar Fatal had more to give on the run-in and passed the post with two and a quarter lengths in hand.
“He won well. He’s just a green horse, it’s his first time over hurdles,” Connell added.
“He hasn’t run for nine months. He was working with the slow horse that won the National Trial – I don’t know what that tells you!
“He’s an exciting horse, he’ll have two more runs over hurdles this year and then we’ll go jumping a fence.
“I think what we’re looking at is the Grade Two in Fairyhouse in seven weeks’ time. If everything went well there he could come back to Punchestown for the two-and-a-half mile Grade One.”
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