Sharjah returns to a deafening silence as Faugheen flounders in his wake

Ahead of the event, Rich Ricci and Willie Mullins might have mused that a Unibet Morgiana Hurdle that initially shaped like one of the races of the season had descended into the softest Grade 1 they would hoover up all year.

It was and it wasn’t. Faugheen, who returned an SP of 2-5 following the withdrawals of Supasundae and Samcro, simply couldn’t raise his game under Ruby Walsh when the gloves came off after the second last hurdle.

Instead, it was Sharjah who stepped up to plunder the €59,000 winner’s prize in Ricci’s second colours, running out an easy seven-and-a-half-length winner under Paul Townend.

“The silence is deafening,” commentator Jerry Hannon observed as the stable’s 7-2 second string eased past the winning post.

Connections celebrate with Sharjah after his Morgiana Hurdle winCredit: Patrick McCann

Mullins, who was welcoming back his ninth Morgiana winner and an eighth in succession, seemed as deflated as everyone else.

When the pressure came on, Faugheen looked decidedly like the mere mortal who slumped to three tame defeats last season following a barnstorming comeback after nearly two years off in the 2017 Morgiana.

He was denied a soft lead from the get-go by the Rachael Blackmore-ridden Tombstone and Mullins felt that might not have helped.

“They probably took each other on in front and maybe galloped each other into the ground and Paul just took advantage of that,” he said of the surprise forecast.

“They went a fair lick in front. I probably would have expected Faugheen to find more but he didn’t. The two of them that had been up front just collapsed, and for luck we had one in behind to take advantage.”

At the time of Faugheen’s rousing triumph over three miles at the spring festival, when he pulverised his Stayers’ Hurdle-winning stablemate Penhill by 13 lengths, Mullins felt that a staying campaign or fences would beckon this term.

Fences remain off the agenda, but the once impermeable 2015 Champion Hurdle victor will now likely return to longer distances as he approaches his 11th birthday.

“The decision was made to stay hurdling but we will probably just go up in trip, as we had intended,” Mullins said.

“His first run was going to be the Hatton’s Grace but when Melon didn’t work well enough and this fellow had worked well, we put him in.”

As is often the case these days, even when Mullins loses, he still wins. Sharjah proved an able deputy under Townend, who is enjoying a rich vein of form that sees him lead the jockeys’ championship.

Since his Galway Hurdle heroics on August 2, Sharjah had been beaten nearly 30 lengths in two Flat races and a hurdle, the last-named coming when third behind Bedrock and Samcro in the WKD Hurdle at Down Royal.

The five-year-old bounced back emphatically here and was cut by Paddy Power to 33-1 (from 50-1) for the Unibet Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.

“He was disappointing in the north but he likes a sharp two miles and something took him on the whole way there as well," Mullins said of the winner. "He has done a lot for the season. I could give him a little break and come back in the spring but after doing that today, it looks like we’ll have to consider Christmas for him.

"We’ll see how he is when he gets home and have a think about it.”

Townend, who won the race aboard Faugheen 12 months earlier, said of Sharjah: “He had fitness on his side, but it was straightforward and a surprise. The ease of the victory surprised me a bit, but looking back through last year's novices, he promised that a few days without actually going through with it.”

Walsh didn’t elaborate much on Faugheen’s performance but said he felt “he ran a blinder” in defeat. Townend added: "I think Faugheen can bounce back, I wouldn't write him off on that."

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