Pluck got spectacularly rewarded when Fastorslow sprang a 20-1 shock in Wednesday’s Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup.
The Martin Brassil-trained winner, beaten in a handicap at Cheltenham on his previous start, didn’t throw out the big-race script so much as rip it to shreds by beating both the Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs and the King George hero Bravemansgame in a thrilling finish.
With all eyes on the ‘big two’ in the straight, Fastorslow emphatically lived up to the first part of his name to suddenly materialise between them on the run to the last under jockey JJ Slevin.
A final fence blunder by Bravemansgame helped the outsider to ultimately run out a two and a quarter length winner from the 4-11 favourite Galopin De Champs, who had a nose in hand of his English rival.
It was a performance to throw fresh perspective on Fastorslow’s second to the subsequent Grand National winner Corach Rambler at Cheltenham, and also a reminder of how a bold approach can pay off in spades.
Despite the star power ranged against Fastorslow – and an official rating almost two stone inferior to Galopin Des Champs – Brassil’s decision to line up in the first place was, in hindsight, hugely significant.
The man who prepared Numbersixvalverde to win the 2006 Grand National isn’t renowned for hit-and-hope jobs when it comes to race planning.
“We were delving into new, top-notch company but you have to try these things – there’s no point dreaming about them!” joked Brassil before outlining the logic behind the ambition.
“There were only five runners and the first two had hard races in the Gold Cup. If there was a chink in their armour I thought we could hopefully exploit that. I didn’t think we’d win but I thought we wouldn’t be far away,” he added.
It was a perfect end to the season too for Slevin, the 30-year-old rider employed by Fastorslow’s owners Seán and Bernadine Mulryan.
“It was a bold move to run him here and it paid. His defeat last time even shows what you need just for a Cheltenham handicap,” he said. “Off the bend to the second last I thought we had a chance of being placed but they weren’t getting away and we winged the last.”
In contrast Bravemansgame’s rider Harry Cobden was left to rue the final fence mistake after cutting out most of the running.
“I’m fuming I didn’t wing the last. I was in very deep and lost two lengths, as well as momentum going out the window,” the Englishman said. “If I winged that fence it’d have been a different result, I’m sure of it.”
In the end Bravemansgame even lost second in the final stride to Galopin Des Champs who proved a major disappointment.
“I’m disappointed to get beaten but the main thing is that he’s back in one piece,” Paul Townend reported. “I was hoping he was going to come alive but he never did.”
Earlier the champion jockey hit the 100-winner mark for the season – the fourth century of his career – with a smooth victory on Gaelic Warrior in the Grade One Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle.
However, as well as the big race, the all-conquering Willie Mullins team also had to settle for minor honours in the Champion Bumper as Tullyhill was left to chase home the remarkable A Dream To Share.
In becoming the fifth horse to complete the Cheltenham-Punchestown double, he also become the first in modern times to pull off five bumper victories in all.
The 8-11 favourite briefly looked in trouble before the turn-in but ultimately scored with authority under his Leaving Cert student rider John Gleeson.
It was a third win in the race for the seemingly ageless John Kiely who revealed he will soon be joined by his nephew Tommy on the training licence.
“This horse is worth getting up for in the morning,” said the man who turns 86 next week. “But checking his leg is a worry every day!”
Mullins and Paul Townend got off the mark for the day when the 6-4 favourite Grangeclare West landed a controversial Louis Fitzgerald Hurdle.
The race went off 13 minutes late after Gordon Elliott’s pair of runners, Imagine and Perfect Attitude, had to turn back on their way to the start so both jockeys could weigh out again.
Just after the horses had originally left the parade ring it emerged the wrong saddles were on them. A switch quickly took place, but the jockeys were told to come back so the weighing out process could be repeated.
A subsequent stewards enquiry heard Elliott admit the wrong saddles were placed on the wrong horses by a staff member. He added he wasn’t present at the time of saddling but accepted full responsibility for the error and apologised for the inconvenience caused. Elliott was fined €500.
Mullins merely described the delay as “unfortunate” and pointed to how the start was at the far side of the racecourse which contributed to the delay.
Townend, however, had a stronger view and said: “It was hugely unfair to hold us that long at the start on a warm day.” Four other riders reported their mounts either got warm or distressed at the start.
Mullins brought up a hat-trick, and his seventh winner of the week, when the apparent second-string of his five runner, Junta Marvel, landed the finale. The evens favourite, Fun Fun Fun, was fourth.
Wednesday’s official attendance was 20,356, up over 400 on 2022.
