Townend banned for 21 days following final-fence drama
If the Irish trainers’ championship was not dramatic enough it took an astonishing twist at Punchestown yesterday when Gordon Elliott saddled the first three home in the Growise Champion Novice Chase after a scarcely-believable final fence drama.
Having sent out a 1,859-1 treble, the highlight of which was Un de Sceaux’s all-the-way win in the Boylesports Champion Chase, Willie Mullins had almost halved Elliott’s lead, to €226,714 (£198,499.74) and was as short as 1-2 to retain his title. But by the close of play on day one of five, Mullins trailed by €405,839.
When the field turned into the straight of the novice chase, with two fences to jump, not even his most ardent fan could have predicted he would have the one-twothree. At the penultimate fence, Monalee, the leader, fell heavily and although he did not bring down the Mullins-trained Invitation Only he did enough to knock David Mullins out of the saddle. That seemed to hand the race to Mullins’s Al Boum Photo.
However his jockey, Paul Townend, suddenly faltered and looked around approaching the last as if alerted by a shout behind him. He stood up in the irons and at- tempted to bypass the fence, a manoeuvre much more difficult than actually jumping it.
This switch took out the second, Colin Tizzard’s Finian’s Oscar, leaving The Storyteller and Davy Russell, plugging on in third at the time, to come home ahead of stable companions Monbeg Notorious and Jury Duty.
Townend’s mistake may just have cost his boss the trainer’s title for instead of ending the race with a deficit to Mullins, in the space of a few seconds Elliott was up to the tune of €90,000.
“I was standing by the last fence,” said Elliott, “and I have no idea what happened. It’s unbelievable – it just shows what can happen in racing. It’ll be interesting now and it’ll go to wire. It is good for racing but it’s not good for my heart.”
The race, after which the stewards gave Townend a 21-day ban for dangerous riding, and ordered him to forfeit his riding fee, will not have done Mullins’s health much good either at such a crucial point in the title race. Until then the day could not have gone much better and Mullins admitted that much after Un De Sceaux’s terrific victory under son Patrick.
The amateur sat on Un De Sceaux, one of Ireland’s most popular chasers, for the first time on Monday. “It was like Charlie winning the golden ticket in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory,” said the jockey, who made all to beat Douvan by 3¾ lengths.
“I wanted to go a good gallop but he didn’t jump with any fluency early on. However, he winged the second down the back and then met everything right. I had a little look turning in and when I saw they weren’t on my tail I felt confident.”
His father had earlier won the Herald Champion Novice Hurdle with 25-1 shot Draconien, despite fielding the well-beaten favourite Getabird, and the Killashee Handicap Hurdle with the Rachael Blackmore-ridden 12-1 shot True Self.
Today, the main race is the Coral Punchestown Gold Cup in which Mullins runs Bellshill, Djakadam, Killultagh Vic and Total Recall while Elliott is represented by Outlander. This one is unlikely to be over until the fat lady sings.