Coquin Mans bound for Punchestown after easy Grade 2 success

It remains one of the more mystifying incidents of the season so far. Nobody quite knows what happened to Coquin Mans when seemingly travelling all over his rivals in a conditions hurdle at Clonmel in December he dropped to the turf.

Whether he stepped in a hole or simply tripped over himself, the result was a nasty injury. But after being nursed back to full fitness by Willie Mullins, Coquin Mans cruised home to take the Grade 2 Keelings Irish Strawberry Hurdle on his first start since that mishap.

Mullins quipped: “You can probably take it that he’d have won coming down the hill at Clonmel!”