Paul Townend is the number one jockey to Willie Mullins and has been hit with a 21-day ban due to dangerous riding, after a strange and bizarre incident when approaching the last fence early yesterday evening at the Punchestown Festival, according to a report on the Telegraph.
It was an incident that could end up seriously damaging Mullins’ hopes of winning the award for champion trainer. Mullins was having a good day at the races before the chaos broke out.
His charge Al Boum Photo looked almost nailed on to win the race after taking the lead when Monalee fell 2 out, but then moments later disaster struck for Mullins as Townend appeared to slow his horse before the jump.
He took a look over his right shoulder to see what was coming from the right, then directed his horse into the path of Finian’s Oscar, who was wiped out of the race by the manoeuvre, then Townend went crashing into the railings.
The connections of Finian’s Oscar were left distraught after the race, which they strongly believe they would have won if that incident didn’t happen.
Joe Tizzard, via At The Races said:
We were desperately unlucky, I don’t really know went through Paul Townend’s mind. He has stood up and looked and then ridden past, it’ll be interesting to hear what he says. It looked like our horse would have won, Robbie was sure he would have done.
However, it was Gordon Elliott’s The Storyteller who picked up the pieces and went on to take the valuable prize, which gave Elliott a tasty lead of €405,838 over arch-rival Mullins.
After all the drama yesterday, it’s set to be an exciting four days ahead, filled with more high-quality racing and drama.
