Comparing champions of different eras is famously futile, but Faugheen's scintillating career-best performance in the BHP Irish Champion Hurdle surely earns him automatic inclusion in bar-stool debates for a long time to come.
From Hatton’s Grace in 1950 through to Hurricane Fly’s unique five-in-a-row – and Flyingbolt, Dawn Run and Istabraq in between – Leopardstown’s feature has been won by great names but none can have won it with more style than Faugheen.
His first race at the Dublin track resulted in a performance officially rated superior to anything Hurricane Fly managed in 10 famously unbeaten spins here, or anywhere else, and left bookmakers rating back-to-back Champion Hurdle victories at Cheltenham a near-formality.
Those who’d forecast a memorable Round Two between Faugheen and his Morgiana conqueror Nichols Canyon looked set to be proved correct after the only horse ever to beat Faugheen made sure the hot favourite didn’t enjoy a solo from the front.
At the third last it was eyeball-to-eyeball stuff between the pair and yet from the second last, Nichols Canyon’s chance was gone. Briefly it looked possible that Arctic Fire might pounce on the pickings of that battle at the front, but it was very brief because even a final flight mistake couldn’t reveal a glimpse of fragility in Faugheen.
At the line he was 15 lengths clear and covered the two miles on soft ground in a remarkable 3:54:00, over 10 seconds quicker than the earlier fast-run maiden won by Don’t Touch It.
“It was toe-to-toe the whole way, he kept the tempo up and jumped like a buck. There was nothing easy about it. But he’s capable of winning over three miles so I knew they weren’t going to out-stay him and I knew I had Nichols beat at the second last,” said Ruby Walsh.
“We were hard at it from the word go but I was always going so well. He was alive with me, so sharp, and he has so much speed – I hope he’s the same at Cheltenham,” he added.
Bookmakers rate Faugheen as low as 1-3 to repeat his 2015 victory at the festival, and any rivals will have to factor in how the standard-bearer among perhaps the most powerful string of National Hunt horses ever assembled looks to be getting even better.
"That was an electrifying performance. I have never seen him jump as well, with the exception of the last hurdle when the race was already over," said Willie Mullins, who has reached 15 Grade 1 prizes for the season already.
Un De Sceaux’s Clarence House success at Ascot on Saturday provoked odds-on quotes about Mullins extending his domestic dominance to the British trainer’s title as well this season, but neither that two-mile flyer, nor indeed Faugheen himself, appears to have mined a place in the trainer’s affections quite like Douvan.
‘Different species’
A 1-14 SP indicated Douvan did nothing he shouldn’t have been able to do by landing the Frank Ward Solicitors Arkle Chase in effortless fashion, but the style of his performance too had Mullins in raptures.
“You are seeing now what he shows me every day at home. It’s as if he’s just a different species. The way he jumps, I don’t think we need to go beyond two miles at the moment, but we have never had any worry about his ability to stay,” he said.
“We don’t know how good he is; he could be anything. He could go back over hurdles and run in a Champion Hurdle. But he’s still a frame, not fully developed and should still improve. And he’s got a temperament like a pony, which is half the battle,” Mullins added.
Walsh was at pains afterwards to make the distinction between potential and delivering on it, but mentioning Kauto Star in comparison indicates the regard in which the new 1-2 Cheltenham Arkle favourite is held by those closest to him.
“What I really liked was it took a long time to pull him up. The ones that gallop through the line and around the bend – that’s when you know there’s something there,” he said. “Until they go and do it in open company, you never know for sure. But Douvan certainly has the potential.”
The bumper winner Village Mystic and another Gigginstown runner, A Toi Phil, were reduced to minor status in a short-priced Mullins four-timer, although A Toi Phil landed the Grade 2 novice hurdle in grand style and has grabbed his trainer’s attention in a different way.
‘Unusual for France’
“He’s unusual for France in that he wasn’t broken until he was four and we got him last year. He wasn’t expensive since, because of his age, people thought there was something wrong. So he’s like a French three-year-old rather than a six-year-old.
“On his first two starts he was all over the place, but he’s maturing all the time and today he looked like a racehorse. He’s an accurate jumper and can go out to three miles so he could be a Neptune/Albert Bartlett horse,” Mullins said.
The Mooch, who races in the colours of Roger English, cousin of the former top hurler Nicky English, battled well to land the handicap chase under Jonathan Moore, although the jockey picked up a three-day ban for his use of the whip.
The crowd of 7,533 was down from last year’s 8,216.
Bookmaker turnover dropped to €487,678 from €788,129. However, the Tote was up from €377,554 to €492,811.
