Racing/Punchestown report: It took eight agonising minutes of photographic scrutiny to finally bring Moscow Flyer's remarkable chasing record to an end at Punchestown yesterday and the reaction of the crowd suggested they would have waited for a lot longer for a different result.
After 19 victories in 19 completed races over fences, number 20 proved just beyond the brilliant chaser who failed by a short head to overhaul his old rival Rathgar Beau in the Kerrygold Champion Chase.
In the circumstances, the welcome for the winner was admirably generous because the vast majority were left stunned by what they had seen. At 1 to 4, and off a superb unbeaten season, this was billed as a mere parade for Moscow Flyer. Which just goes to show how a circuit of fences can always bite back at such presumptions.
Moscow Flyer has made heavy weather of it in the past at Punchestown and another unshowy win looked likely right up until the second last when Barry Geraghty did well to survive a diabolical mistake.
Shay Barry and Rathgar Beau pounced on the opportunity like a hungry man on a steak. Often reduced to playing for minor stakes behind the great horse, this was their big chance and they made the most of it.
To his credit, Moscow Flyer fought like a true champion and on the line had almost got back up. But it wasn't enough.
The pair of them circled in the parade ring as the judge Brendan Sheridan pored over the photo-finish. If his hands shook slightly it would have been understandable and towards the end there were many predicting a dead-heat with much certainty. But that wasn't to be.
"I thought I had won but the longer we waited the less sure I was," said Barry while trainer Dusty Sheehy, winning his first Grade One, played an admirably straight bat to questions about his guilt level at having overturned the popular hero: "I'm not going to feel guilty about winning an €180,000 race."
Moscow Flyer's trainer Jessica Harrington adopted a no-nonsense sturdiness in response to the muted atmosphere. "Life goes on - the great thing is that we will all wake up in the morning," she said. "The way my luck has been, I'm just happy to have a horse in one piece and not have to look at a trailer coming back."
Harrington was referring to having lost two horses, including the Grade One winner Ulaan Baatar, in the last week and Moscow Flyer now faces a long summer break, preferably a long way from Punchestown.
"Barry says he has never travelled as well here as he can," she added. "He also seems to have a slight aversion to the second last fence. But he was always going to get beaten one day so what's the point in being disappointed. He is a fantastic horse but when you get put on that sort of pedestal it's very easy to fall off. I'm amazed it hasn't happened before."
Sheehy will look at next year's Champion Chase for Rathgar Beau but, significantly, bookmaker reaction was to leave Moscow Flyer unchanged as favourite for Cheltenham 2006.
"Moscow Flyer is a great champion and always will be," added Sheehy. "But my horse deserves this."
Timmy Murphy broke his right wrist after after taking a heavy fall from Emotional Article four from home in the handicap hurdle won by Nina Carberry on board Mansony. The top jockey was transferred to Tallaght hospital for surgery.
It had been a different story earlier when Murphy replaced Barry Geraghty on board Forget The Past in the Ellier Novice Chase and the pair gelled immediately to beat Quazar by five lengths.
"He should have beaten Like-A-Butterfly at Fairyhouse but the jockey was trying to get him to go short after me telling him to let the horse do his own thing. I wasn't very happy," said trainer Michael O'Brien.
Another jockey in the wars was amateur Andrew Duff, who fell from Jameson Prince in the Land Rover Bumper won by the Nicky Henderson-trained It's a Dream. Duff was taken for x-rays to his neck but the injuries are not reported to be serious.
Paul Carberry warmed up for the Evening Herald Champion Novice with a smooth win over the banks course on David's Lad but it was much more of a dour struggle before Wild Passion eventually held off Kill Devil Hill in the big Grade One pot.
"We were seriously considering putting blinkers on him because he doesn't concentrate. He is just lazy and I think there was plenty in the locker," said Noel Meade, who could run Wild Passion again in the Menolly Homes Hurdle on Friday.
Nay's headstrong tendencies were given free rein on his bumper debut as Niall Madden did well on the Willie Mullins-trained horse to beat Well Mounted. "He goes where he wants to go, when he wants to go," grinned Mullins. "But I think a bit of him and racing will settle him down."
