Faugheen survives mid-race scare on chase debut

Faugheen survived a serious scare mid-race to make a winning chase debut at Punchestown this afternoon.

The former champion hurdler went to post a 8/11 shot for his first outing over fences and bounced out in front under Paul Townend in the Naas Oil Beginners Chase.

Everything was going to plan until the eighth fence, the first ditch, where he got things wrong and almost unshipped Townend.

The champion jockey did well to keep the partnership in tact and recover his composure after losing his irons.

Having lost the lead Faugheen tracked the leaders but gave supporters a few moments of slight worry in the closing stages with a peck three from home and slightly untidy leap at the penultimate fence.

The 11-year-old showed the engine is still there, however, when bursting into the lead before the last and a fine leap there propelled him to a seven-and-a-half length success. Walk Away posted a promising effort to chase him home.

Mullins said “He was brilliant over the first half dozen until he made that mistake —it was probably the first ditch that he’d seen!

“Paul said he just put down and tried to do what he does over hurdles which is gallop out through it.

“Now he realises that you can’t do that and by the time he got over the last to Paul was very happy with him.

“He showed a nice turn of foot when he had to ask him to race going down to the last and after it. The engine certainly seemed to be there.

“I’m happy that we got today out of the way and we’ll see how he comes out of this before deciding where we go next.”

Townend added:- “He popped the first half dozen fences grand but he just had a look at the ditch and changed his mind a little bit.

“He just went to bring it with him a bit like he did a hurdle back in his day. He was a bit careful over the next couple after that but I couldn't believe when he pecked at the back of the third last how he came back on the bridle so strong for me.

“I would have forgave him (getting beat) because of the two mistakes we made and that was the bit that most impressed me.

“It's a long time since he point-to-pointed. It's nice to see there is a bit of fire in his belly still.

“It was this meeting a couple of years ago when I first sat on him and he was very good, he likes it around here as well.

“I was very impressed with him to overcome those couple of mistakes.”

Betfair made Faugheen 20/1 from 40/1 for the RSA Chase at Cheltenham and go 16/1 for the JLT Chase.

(Additional reporting by Alan Magee)