I was surprised they just let Ruby dictate the pace CV. It's his biggest asset as a jockey IMO. I appreciate it's easier when you're on the best horse, but he made the win on Faugheen and UDS look slightly easier than they actually were IMO.

Did it again on Vautour, but he was simply in a different league anyway.

I think it's clear to see that Faugheen is always going to attract criticism. Firstly, it was that he hadn't beaten anything and had only beaten trees. Now here he is a Champion Hurdle winner and it was gifted to him after Ruby was allowed to dictate the pace. Have a day off, he's a machine and a very profitable one at that! I wonder if Nigel Twiston Davies has tried renaming his horse to "The Nearly One" yet? Shame.

Cant Catch I did not see him up closely on the way back in but he did a circuit and a half of the parade ring afterwards and the lad had difficulty holding him the whole way around.

I believe he would have would won the race irrespective of the pace set.

Totally agree about Douvan going the Arkle next season! The only reason Vautour wasn't in the Arkle this year was down to UDS. There's no UDS lurking about this year. Realistically the only other option for Douvan would be Champion Hurdle but let's face it, Faugheen will be back to defend his title!

Calling Faugheen a grinder, NTD basically decided he wasn't going to pay attention to anyone elses horses and just go on spounting utter nonsense about how his own horses are absolute world beaters. It was clear from Kempton that Faugheen has a turn of foot, while Ruby has a superb record in making the running on horses. So to give him the run of the race where he could ride the tactics he wanted was a bad decision by JP imv.

It was fascinating how Walsh rode Faugheen but I also think it gives hope to his challengers next year because I think the tactics perhaps show the concern that they themselves had about his jumping.

As timtin says above, on the face of it the tactics should have made it harder for a horse that stays 3 miles to a win a CH when having to rely on his pace at the end of the race, but I think that prospect was still less of a worry than making him go faster through the race as the concern over his jumping was too great.

Now, if we actually look what happened during the race it actually bears this concern out as through the early and middle parts of the race with no pressure applied to Faugheen he jumped ok but when they got to the business end of the race at the 3rd last when Walsh first starts to ask him he makes a slight mistake and then at the 2nd last when jexki is right upsides him and they are really motoring he makes another worse mistake, however, as he's such a good horse and as he hadn't suffered earlier on in the race he was able to recover and get away from them and win.

On reflection it is reasonable to think that the unusual tactics were borne out of a concern about his jumping and the evidence from the race itself showed that when asked to race properly with horses pressuring him there is a flaw present.

In next years race I would be amazed if there isn't something forcing the pace hard from the word go putting extra pressure on him at each and every flight.

Mullins said "He probably won't jump a fence. When you've got a good hurdler like this there's no reason to go novice chasing."

I think he's making a huge mistake treating him as one trick pony, he was novice champion, he's now champion hurdler, whats more to prove? they should now go chasing and prove his versatility over the bigger obstacles, and he stays so Gold Cup could be an option. It seems a better strategy to keep Douvan and Arctic Fire(both young and improving) and also Annie Power for the CH but at the same time target the GC with everything he has available: Vautour, Don Poli, Djakadam and Faugheen. If Djakadam fails there's Don Poli, if DP fails theres Vautour and if VT fails theres Faugheen. When you have such a good pool of horses you should have backup over backups especially for the Gold Cup.

Cheltenham broke the first day attendance record this year but if Faugheen goes chasing they'll break the last day record because all racing fans will want to see him facing new challenges and getting tested in different ways instead of seeing him do the same thing over the same trip. Mullins admitted he tried to get Faugheen beaten and he can try to do it by getting him over fences where the failure chances will increase alot more than over hurdles.

2 miles hurldes, again ? boring...  fences? stamina for GC? possible failure? much more exciting!! I hope Ricci and Mullins will change their minds and make us a big surprise for the new season!

Ruby knew that the only way UDS could get beaten was to fall or hit one - almost won the race in a canter

Yes home in detriment of horse racing.. When you have a horse of this nature the attendance will rise considerably, the papers will put racing in spotlight and the racing fans get to see another great battle.. instead we have Faugheen home watching grass grow.. now Mullins is in love with him after he gave him 3 hard races in a month's period before the Neptune..

He can handle racing in short space of time, he proved it already, he's not a stallion so why keep him home... why keep him over hurdles when he already proved what he can do over them.. put him over fences and make racing more popular to the masses, as even if he gets beat the media will love the story and we will all want to see him try something new.. do anything but don't keep him home if he's fit and ready for racing..

* hurdler

It's got nothing to do with what Mullins has. It's what Ricci has.

thank you @trigger3, finally someone who understands where I'm getting at. With a good horse like this you need to think of the greater good and bring racing into public attention. RR has enough money, if he wants to do jumps racing the biggest favour would be to promote Faugheen over different obstacles, distances and tracks, doing a one trick pony is not helping anyone but his trainer & jockey...

re Faugheen - "doing a one trick pony".

Tim I've seen it all here on the forum now!

He never had anything good to say about the horse. He's currently hyping Vautour so much that makes you believe he's the one unbeaten so I don't think he'll ever give Faugheen the chance to go over fences and we'll see the next year CH with only 3-4 horses in it, next week at Punchestown we'll have a walkover so IF Mullins wants to do racing any good he should start testing Faugheen over fences, over Gold Cup distance and at different tracks.

I hope that Mullins sends Douvan down the Champion Hurdle route, he is good enough to win a champion hurdle if given the opportunity to do so. I'd then like to see Mullins sending Faugheen chasing this season. He has done all he can hurdling having won on differing grounds, different tracks and over different distances. There is no fun in running in small fields beating the same horses over and over again which is likely what he will be asked to do next season (similar to Hurricane Fly). He has no credible challenegers left in the 2m hurdling division and has nothing left to prove. Alternatively he will have the opportunity to become a super horse if he goes chasing and is still young enough.

Mullins is a farmer. Case in point Annie Power once again running in a mares race. It's an insult to her. She is so much more.

That s a bit of a contradiction in terms EO. Rich Ricci is one of those people who plough money into the game and he is more than happy to see Annie Power dominating her sex. Especially as he has runners in most of the other races you want to see AP running in.

Somehow they found Faugheen's first win over PTP fences, in a bad quality but here it is: http://www.p2ptv.ie/?tube=1021

Absolutely nowt wrong with winning the CH again. Also Djakadam came close last time,can see him going real close again in the gold cup.