Simply bizarre! Townend hit with 21-day ban after baffling manoeuvre

The Storyteller won it. But trying to tell the story of how Paul Townend ended up with a 21-day dangerous riding ban is nigh-on impossible.

What took place at Punchestown early on Tuesday evening will go down in racing folklore as one of the most remarkable, bizarre and crazy things to happen not just on this racecourse but on any racecourse.

There was Devon Loch's Grand National collapse and there was the Ile De Chypre stun gun affair. Now there is the mystery of Paul Townend and Al Boum Photo.

For Townend, number one jockey to Willie Mullins at this Punchestown Festival in the absence of Ruby Walsh, it was the stuff of nightmares.

For Mullins, whose day had generally been going rather well to this point, it may have been enormously costly. For Gordon Elliott it was absolutely wonderful.

Yet Elliott, like everyone else at Punchestown in the minutes after the Growise Champion Novice Chase, had not a clue what had just gone on. He bore the sort of bemused expression that had also sat on the face of Mullins as he watched from the owners' and trainers' grandstand. Unlike Elliott, Ireland's reigning champion trainer was not smiling.

"I don't know," said Elliott, who had enjoyed a ringside view of the drama, having decided to watch the contest from the final fence. Seeing events unfold close up did not mean he could explain those events.

"I just don't know," he said again. "I was stood on the inside of the track but I don't know what happened. What do you say?"

View the race replay in full here

Most people said nothing, as it's hard to talk when your mouth is wide open. Instead they looked to the big screens to see if they could offer any sort of clues. Had Townend heard someone say the fence should not be jumped? Had he simply suffered a shocking brain fade? Who knows? The replays simply made you scratch your head even harder.

Approaching the final fence of the card's third Grade 1 prize Al Boum Photo seemed on course to take the honours and earn more valuable prize-money for Mullins, whose long-time leader Invitation Only had been brought down when Monalee fell just seconds earlier.

Robbie Power can't believe it on Finian's Oscar as he watches Davy Russell and The Storyteller take the last with the race in the bagCredit: Caroline Norris

Then suddenly, inexplicably, Townend, for so many years such an excellent servant to Mullins, at first seemed to start easing down his mount.

His next move was to look over his right shoulder before urging Al Boum Photo in that direction, as if he was trying to bypass the final fence. He duly managed to bypass it, but not its plastic wing, which the presumably confused horse crashed through, while at the same time taking Finian's Oscar out of the race.

Thereafter, salt was rubbed into the wound.

While most eyes were still fixed on the crash scene, last month's Cheltenham Festival winner The Storyteller and Davy Russell galloped past the post in front, followed by Monbeg Notorious, also trained by Elliott, and then Jury Duty, yet another trained by Elliott.

The stewards' report offered no real help in terms of finding an explanation.

It read: "Having viewed the recording of the race and considered the evidence, the stewards were of the opinion that P. Townend was in breach of rule 214 in that he had ridden dangerously and, having considered his record in this regard, the stewards suspended him for 21 racedays and ordered that he forfeit his riding fee."

As such reports go, it was a clinical assessment. In the winner's enclosure there was much more colour, particularly on the face of Elliott. The man who would be champion trainer started the race €316,714 in front of Mullins. The man who very well now might be champion trainer ended it with a lead of €405,838.

"We've had a good bit of luck there, but we need it," said Elliott. He said a little bit more but, truth be told, the man everyone wanted to hear from was Townend. It seems everyone will have to wait a little longer as Townend left Punchestown after choosing to make no comment.

The connections of Finian's Oscar, who was staying on when literally shoved off course, did comment. "We were desperately unlucky," said trainer Colin Tizzard's son Joe.

"I don't really know what 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 gone and won. Robbie was sure he would have done."

Winning rider Davy Russell thought different, although he expressed that view with tongue firmly in cheek.

"I was never in doubt," he said. "I was always going to win."

The Storyteller did indeed win. Russell's words do not, though, tell the whole story.

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