Champion Hurdler Faugheen now a Champion Stayer

The 2015 Champion Hurdler Faugheen impressed greatly from the front when upped to three miles in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle at Punchestown.

Straight out there bossing things under David Mullins, the Germany gelding hurdled really fluently and Penhill came off the bridle in pursuit turning in.

In the end the Mullins stable brought up a double on the card (Cadnium won for them earlier) as Faugheen beat his stable companions Penhill and Shaneshill by thirteen lengths and four and three parts of a length.

It was Identity Thief in fourth then with another Mullins horse, Bapaume in fifth.

The Closutton maestro now leads by 322,461 Euros from Gordon Elliott in the race to be champion trainer.

He's back! What a performance - Faugheen wins the Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle! @punchestownrace pic.twitter.com/xTmTjProZj

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) April 26, 2018

David Mullins said afterwards: "I can't really describe it (the feeling). I got to ride him as a bumper horse - even when they knew he was special - just out at home and the whole place was like God you're allowed to ride Faugheen and you're only 16 and all this sort of stuff.

"To actually get the spin on him and for him to show up in that sort of form - John (Codd) and the team at home - they had him in tip-top shape.

"I didn't think there'd be a lot of pace today so I said I'd go on even over the three miles - it's a hard thing to do to be in front for that long but he loved every second of it. He travelled down the hill and I had to let him rock as I didn't want to be fighting with him.

"The bit of ease in the ground probably helped as well.

"Faugheen for me, and I've not been racing that long, is the best horse I've ever seen on his day.

"It just took three miles and a bit of give in the ground for him to show it.

"It felt like I was doing a hack canter the whole way around - it's unbelievable."

Owner Rich Ricci said: "You couldn't make it up and I didn't watch most of it but I was listening.

"When he kept hold of that lead I thought okay we might do this today.

"He'd won over three miles before of course. It was a great ride by David. He said he was going to make it. Maybe he got a bit of a soft lead but nonetheless he pressed on a long way from home and it's magic.

"The ball hasn't bounced our way all season and to get something like this with such a great horse is unbelievable.

"We'll see how things are over the summer and take it from there but it's great to have him back.

"Willie is magic and has had winners all week but I feel bad for Gordon (Elliott). He doesn't deserve to lose. He's a good man and he's handled it with such aplomb all season.

"But Willie is brilliant. It drives me crazy when we're behind and the horses aren't out until January and that it all comes down to Punchestown but it's the way he does things and he's just magic and it works for him and it works for us so happy days."

"David said he loved it, absolutely loved it. He probably got a lot of things his own way there today and it may not happen again in the future but he has a fair engine" said Willie Mullins.

"That victory was something else. It just shows that the horse has the heart and I don't where he got that from. Maybe we'll stay three miles or maybe we'll go chasing with him - I don't know. It's going to be fun deciding what we are going to do.

"He worked the other morning and this was going to be a last chance saloon. Ruby (Walsh) was with me on the gallops and we looked at each other and said that's him gone.

"You always take a chance and run, and just hope on the day maybe good weather and a nice bit of grass underneath will bring him back to life.

"If he had finished down the field today we probably would have said it was time to retire him but it didn't happen!

"He always runs well here. I think the only time he was beaten here was when he let Nichols Canyon have a lead one year. He was just fed up going that two-mile gallop, and when he got things his own way here he started to enjoy it.

"He'd be a right novice chaser but we'll see what Rich wants to do with him. Three-mile hurdling is very hard on a horse, and do we want to subject him to that on heavy ground. I'd rather go novice chasing as it might be a lot easier."

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board Veterinary Officer examined Bacardys (FR), trained by W.P. Mullins, at the request of the Stewards and reported the animal to be post race normal.

(AM & EM)