Punchestown report: Barry Geraghty's face might have looked the worse for wear but the brain ticked into overdrive to allow Macs Joy upset his old bogey Brave Inca in yesterday's ACC Bank Champion Hurdle.

The former champion jockey was kicked in the face in a fall at Thurles just a week before and only returned to action on Wednesday - complete with 16 stitches.

But Geraghty has always thrived when it counts most in the big races and although Brave Inca had come out on top at Cheltenham he was caught on the hop yesterday as Geraghty made the decisive move of the race to lead fully three fights from home.

Not surprisingly Brave Inca didn't duck the issue but Macs Joy was not fully stretched to win by four lengths with the former champion Hardy Eustace another length back in third.

"I knew I wanted to challenge early but I got there even earlier than anticipated," Geraghty explained. "I knew the other lads were struggling and I didn't want to let Brave Inca warm up. My horse deserves that. He was second in as good a Champion Hurdle as we've seen in a while."

Jessica Harrington confirmed another attempt at the Champion in Cheltenham next March is the plan and said: "He's entitled to another crack. Maybe he's a little better here, and he loves the sun on his back, but he deserved that. I think Barry going on earlier paid off."

Brave Inca's trainer Colm Murphy wasn't too downbeat and commented: "We've always said he needs a stiff two miles and he was never really travelling today. All credit to Macs Joy but our horse will go out to grass now and then come back to be prepared for the Champion Hurdle again."

Hardy Eustace's jockey Conor O'Dwyer was stood down for a week after the race due to a toe injury but the old champion still features in the ante-post betting for Cheltenham 2007 with six Irish horses dominating the Champion Hurdle market.

Ruby Walsh successfully stepped in for the injured Paul Carberry on board the SunAlliance winner Nicanor who doubled up for the champion trainer Noel Meade in the Dunboyne Hotel Champion Novice Hurdle.

Walsh was forced into making most of the running but it proved no barrier to Nicanor holding off Mounthenry by a length. "When people think horses should win, there is a lot of pressure but having Ruby as a sub takes some of that off me," Meade said.

Howaya Pet made her last race count with a gallant defeat of Hot Weld in the Ellen Construction Conyngham Cup. The mare is in foal to Beneficial and her trainer Gerry Keane said: "She ran well in the Kerry National last September but has been wrong ever since. We couldn't get her right but it's great to get her back for this."

Tony McCoy and Dermot Weld teamed up to land the novice hurdle with Kinger Rocks.

There was a considerable blow to punters in the concluding bumper when the heavily-backed favourite Female, and her jockey Padraig Roche, looked all over the winners for much of the straight only to be run out of it in the final strides by Shuil Aris.

Roche afterwards got a five-day ban for careless riding in an incident that saw Conor's Secret come down.

Ladies day produced the biggest crowd of the week at 29,254, over 4,000 up on last year, and it brought the total festival attendance to 85,057.

The Tote was again marginally down to €1,035,032 which brought the festival total to €4,042,680. Bookmaker trading reached almost €3.5 million yesterday, up approximately €1.1 million on last year.