Willie Mullins keeps faith as Faugheen bounds into Champion Hurdle favouritism
It hardly seems possible but Faugheen is clear at the top of the betting for the Champion Hurdle following a remarkable and convincing return to action in Ireland on Sunday. Having his first race since January last year, a gap of 665 days, he made all the running and bolted up in Punchestown’s Morgiana Hurdle, the ninth Grade One success of his career.
After a saga of injuries including a damaged suspensory ligament, a bruised foot and a stress fracture to an unspecified bone, it seemed too much to hope for another of the dominant displays we saw at the Festival here in 2014 and 2015. But those who sent him off at odds of 4-11 were given little cause for concern as he bounded home 16 lengths ahead of Jezki.
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His followers may be biting their nails again on Monday morning, however, as they wait to hear how Faugheen has taken this 14th outing of his career. For any ageing animal with his veterinary history, being sound in wind and limb on the day after a race cannot be taken for granted, a point that Willie Mullins readily acknowledged in the winner’s enclosure.
“Hopefully he’ll be all right in the morning,” was the trainer’s response when asked about targets. “He’s been very good at home and we haven’t had any setbacks with him. Hopefully we won’t after today. Hopefully he’s fine in the morning and over the next few days and we’ll just prepare him for his next run.”
Having been a general 6-1 for the Champion Hurdle on Sunday morning, Faugheen is now no bigger than 5-2 to do what no horse has ever done – win the title back after a two-year gap. By the time the race comes round in March he will be 10, older than every winner since Sea Pigeon in 1981.
The opposition on Sunday was hardly fearsome and sterner tests lie ahead. But Mullins argued there was some substance to this performance. “He didn’t win by just hanging on. He was having his first run of the year against three horses that are super-fit from running. He just jumped out and took the race from them. The race was set up for any one of those, fit from summer racing.”
Paul Townend was the lucky man who got to do the steering, following Saturday’s injury to Ruby Walsh, who had been Faugheen’s only jockey since December 2013. The full extent of Walsh’s injury may not be established until he has follow-up x-rays later this week but Dr Adrian McGoldrick, the Irish Turf Club’s chief medical officer, said he has “no doubt” Walsh will be back in time for the Festival.
That seems a brave prediction, in view of Professional Jockeys Association guidelines that it takes an average 130 days to recover from a tibia fracture.
When Walsh broke two bones in the same leg in early November 2010, he was out of action until a fortnight before the following Festival.
It was a better day for his weighing room colleague Bryan Cooper, who enjoyed an easy success in the Shloer Chase here aboard Fox Norton and can now look forward to partnering the same horse in the Tingle Creek three weeks from now.
This was just a third success from 34 rides in Britain since Cooper landed a job with the late Alan Potts, leading to doubts about his confidence, but this ready success may quieten the doubters for a while.
“I’m chuffed for him because he’s been under pressure, there’s no two ways about it,” said the winning trainer, Colin Tizzard. “Alan decided he was going to ride all the horses in England and I went along with it. If I’d had my choice, it might not have been. But he has come out on Friday, riding Finian’s Oscar, gave him a lovely ride.
“And he was brilliant on this horse today. No one could have rode him any better. And I hope we can fill him up with confidence because he is a good jockey and we can put that out of our minds now. There’s no reason why he can’t ride everything.”