The Fozzy stack trained Carlo Biraghi looks almost certain to be Cheltenham Festival-bound after making an impressive start to his jumping career at Punchestown on Monday afternoon.

The well-built son of Galileo ran in the Irish Derby, in which he finished 10th place behind the Joseph O’Brien trained Latrobe, that is how high in esteem this horse is regarded.

Making his first competitive appearance since been gelded, Carlo Biraghi was a 12-1 shot for the Introducing Racing TV Maiden Hurdle and travelled strongly behind the pacesetting Andalusa for much of the two-mile journey .He showed signs of his rawness when wandering around on the run to the final flight but picked up well on the run-in to score by seven and a half lengths from Pienta in the hands of Danny Mullins. The manner of that success strongly suggested that he is an ideal candidate for the imminent Cheltenham festival, bookmakers reacted by cutting him as short as 14-1 for the Triumph Hurdle, his trainer Fozzy Stack has since then confirmed a trip across the Irish Sea will be seriously considered.

Stack insisted: “I thought he was going to run out at the last, but he jumped quite well up to that. “We won’t go to the Dublin Racing Festival (at Leopardstown) because it’s a bit too close, and we’ll get another run into him before Cheltenham or Aintree or one of the Festivals. We will mix it over the summer with the Flat, and he could go for something like a Chester Cup or the Ebor. “He stays well and will gallop all day long.”

Its almost certain that the 14/1 presently available will be long snapped up before the Cheltenham festival, this well-bred horse aspects to being the real deal.