Punchestown report:The Grand National winning jockey, Robbie Power, sprang another big race shock when powering the 20 to 1 outsider Silent Oscar to a dramatic defeat of Macs Joy in yesterday's ACC Bank Champion Hurdle at Punchestown.
Silver Birch's rider got the better of an epic tussle with Barry Geraghty up the straight to win by a neck and repeat the positions from a flat race at the Curragh 12 days previously when Silent Oscar also got the better of Macs Joy.
Those who took that form literally got a big-priced result but considering the Harry Rogers- trained winner was rated 40lbs behind Hardy Eustace over jumps, and 38lbs inferior to Macs Joy, there were precious few of those. Not that that mattered to Rogers, who trained Moon Unit to win the Group Three Greenlands Stakes on the flat two years ago, but who was enjoying the best result of his training career to date.
"We were hoping to get in the money but this is a nice surprise," Ardee, Co Louth-based Rogers said. "He had a nice run behind Brave Inca at Christmas on ground he doesn't like and when Robbie told me yesterday the ground was perfect we decided to take our chance."
Power certainly showed he is currently brimming with confidence by taking the initiative from Hardy Eustace fully four hurdles out and then fighting back to deny Macs Joy a repeat of his 2006 success. "Hardy wasn't as fluent as normal so I was in front longer than I expected but when Barry headed me 200 yards out my fellah really battled," reported the winning jockey.
Silent Oscar received general quotes of 33 to 1 for next year's Champion Hurdle but Rogers indicated he might go novice chasing with the horse after an ambitious tilt at the Ascot Gold Cup in June.
"If the ground is right, we could go for that Group One. Two and a half miles looks to be his trip," he said.
Macs Joy's trainer Jessica Harrington said: "He's just had one of those stop-go seasons and maybe I haven't been as hard on the horse as I could have been. But he has run very well and I'm thrilled with Callow Lake finishing fourth as well." Ruby Walsh ended the Irish season with another big-race double for Willie Mullins highlighted by Glencove Marina's success in the Land Rover Champion Novice Hurdle.
Barry Geraghty's luck was also out here as he looked to be getting back at the winner on board Catch Me when falling at the last and leaving the Mullins runner in for an ultimately easy victory.
"He is still improving and Ruby says he still had plenty horse under him at the last," Mullins said. "We will probably go novice chasing and with a bit of luck he will be an Arkle horse."
Glencove Marina was installed a 12 to 1 chance for the 2008 Arkle with Cashmans.
Mullins was singing Walsh's praises after Alexander Taipan's neck defeat of Anothercoppercoast in the novice handicap chase. "It was an exceptional ride. The horse was only catching him up. The horse did not help him at any stage but Ruby was absolutely excellent," the trainer said. "I don't know how far up the ladder this horse can go. I thought he might be a Grade One type but I don't know now."
Both Mullins and Walsh won the leading trainer and jockey awards for the four-day festival.
Punters were also out of luck in the first two races as the 33 to 1 outsider Kings Glen landed the Conyngham Cup for Tommy Carberry whose Penny Hall started favourite but finished fourth.
Penny Hall's jockey, Nina Carberry, was on the second-string of the Enda Bolger team in the banks race but with Darby Wall bursting a blood vessel, Lonesome Day came through to provide the champion amateur with her third winner of the week.
"Yet again, Miss Carberry is something else," said Bolger. "This horse has never won a race in his life and we wondered if he was a thinker. But once her ladyship gets on board, he just runs for her. I'm so happy he's had his turn."
The biggest cheer of the day came in the last event of the festival, the charity sweepstakes, as the former great chaser Moscow Flyer emerged from retirement to win for trainer Jessica Harrington's 17-year-old daughter Kate. The 13-year-old star showed plenty of his old gusto to beat John James by three and a half lengths and returned to a tumultuous reception.
It's a case of as-you-were after yesterday's conclusion to the 2006-07 Irish jumps season with Ruby Walsh retaining his jockeys title crown, his fifth in all, with 125 winners.
Noel Meade is the champion trainer for the sixth year in a row with 102 winners and prize-money of almost €1.9 million.
Nina Carberry is again the champion amateur with 30 winners while JP McManus is the top owner for the 12th year in a row with prizemoney won of over €1.1 million.
The only new name is Andrew Leigh, who is the new conditional jockeys champion following his 28 winners.
Punchestown figures
A course-record attendance of 32,883 yesterday brought the festival crowd figure for 2007 to 90,868. There was a new course record for the Tote also with a turnover of €1,370,999 beating Wednesday's tally. It brought the four-day Tote total to just over 4.5 million. Yesterday's bookmaker tally of 3,309,875 was slightly down on last year.
