A bitterly disappointing week for leading owner Rich Ricci and trainer Willie Mullins concluded with the biggest setback of all here on Friday, as Faugheen, the 2015 Champion Hurdle winner, was pulled up before the home turn on his second run back after a long lay-off with injury. Faugheen was apparently sound afterwards but has been taken out of the betting for this season’s Champion Hurdle by most bookmakers, having been the narrow ante-post favourite as he lined up for Friday’s Ryanair Hurdle.
Faugheen set off as the 2-11 favourite to back up a 16-length win in the Grade One Morgiana Hurdle in November, when he was racing for the first time in 22 months. Paul Townend sent him into an early lead but Cilaos Emery, a stable companion at Mullins’s yard, moved past him with about six furlongs to run and Faugheen was soon dropping back through the field.
Townend pulled up Faugheen before the second-last flight and quickly dismounted. The nine-year-old was brought back in the horse ambulance as a precaution, but was apparently sound and uninjured according to his owner.
“He’s not distressed or anything,” Ricci said. “Paul pulled him up because he wasn’t going anywhere. When Cilaos Emery went by him, he would normally have picked up the bit and cracked on, but he just didn’t. I knew he was toast then.
“Willie’s horses have been in-and-out all week, so I just don’t know. Hopefully, we have a horse to come back and have another day with. There doesn’t appear to be any injury, anyway. But that caps one hell of a week. It’s very disappointing. Hopefully, he’s not injured, because it’s the injuries that kill you. The racing stuff is what it is.”
Mullins himself was hopeful that a reason for Faugheen’s lacklustre run would emerge. “I’m sure something will arise. He might be incubating a cold or something like that, but at the moment we don’t have any evidence of anything. The only observation I made before the race in the parade ring was he looked a little cold in his coat compared to our other horse, Cilaos Emery, who looked fantastic.
“This is obviously a huge setback. I’m not thinking anything at the moment. The important thing is he’s sound to trot up, so it doesn’t look like he’s any leg trouble. Paul said he just felt very lacklustre over the first few furlongs and he definitely wasn’t himself.”
Let’s Dance took a Grade Three race on Friday’s card in Ricci’s familiar pink colours, but overall the valuable four-day Christmas meeting here was one disappointment after another for the owner/trainer combination, and a far cry from the days when his pink colours were dominant in the Grade One races, both here and at Cheltenham in the spring.
“It’s been a very challenging week,” Ricci said. “Yesterday, [the Graham Wylie-owned] Yorkhill and [Ricci’s] Djakadam ran no sort of race, none. Hopefully we will find out something and it’s not too serious, so long as the horses are all right and we can get them back for another day. We’ve got the Festival here [in early February] and we can try to pick it up from there.”
Ricci’s chaser Min was relegated from first place in Wednesday’s Grade One contest over two miles here after causing interference in the closing stages, while the novice hurdler Sharjah was one of two fallers at the last in another Grade One on the same day, when apparently poised to win. His best staying chaser, Djakadam, was also disappointing on Thursday’s card.
“I fancied all of our runners on Wednesday,” Ricci said. “The novice hurdle was unbelievable, what happened there. Yesterday was a disaster from start to finish. Today, I didn’t think Let’s Dance was brilliant and Paul said she felt a bit flat and maybe her ability got her through, and of course Faugheen is a disaster.
“Look, we’ll regroup and see what we can do and come back on another day. It feels like a long, long winter and Cheltenham is far away.”
With Faugheen out of contention, Friday’s race was won by Gordon Elliott’s Mick Jazz under a strong ride by Davy Russell, with Cilaos Emery a length-and-three-quarters away at the line. He was rated 22lb inferior to Faugheen beforehand, however, and remains a big outsider for the Champion Hurdle in March. Buveur D’Air, last year’s winner, is now odds-on to retain the title at 4-6, while Melon, from the Mullins stable, is a 9-1 chance and the only other runner at a single-figure price.
The first Grade One on the card, a three-mile novice chase, was expected to be an informative Cheltenham trial, but Monalee, the ante-post favourite for the RSA Chase in March, fell at the third last and brought down Rathvinden, the second favourite for Friday’s race, in the process. Shattered Love, the eventual winner, was probably fortunate to do so and is 20-1 for the RSA Chase, while Monalee is now joint-favourite at 7-1 with Presenting Percy.
“He got some fall,” Henry de Bromhead, Monalee’s trainer, said. “It wasn’t only the fall, he landed on his head over on his neck and then two horses came along and kicked him after.
“He’s in the wars down there [in the yard]. We just need to make sure he’s OK and then we’ll see from there.”
Investigations also continue into the disappointing run of Sizing John, last year’s Gold Cup winner, in the Christmas Chase here on Thursday.
“All the bloods came back normal,” Jessica Harrington, Sizing John’s trainer, said. “We’ll take more bloods at the weekend, but he’s sound and he’s eaten up.”