Incredible horse race at Punchestown - Paul Townend and Al Boum Photo
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- Maybe the most remarkable finish you'll ever see...
Drama doesn't quite cover this at Punchestown and the extraordinary closing stages of the Grade 1 Growise Champion Novice Chase at the Punchestown Festival.
After favourite Monalee and Invitation Only come down at the second-last, Al Boum Photo and Paul Townend are seemingly in control with the race at their mercy - only for the jockey to inexplicably steer his horse around the final fence and take out Finian's Oscar in the process as The Storyteller runs through late in the piece to land the spoils in one of the most remarkable races you'll ever see.
What happened? What was going through Paul Townend's mind? Our team of Gary O'Brien and Mick Fitzgerald look back at some extraordinary events...
-------------------
Enjoy the best of At The Races on our free, award-winning app:
iPhone: apple.co/1I4NxAV
Android: bit.ly/1VPIcEz
AtTheRaces
AtTheRaces
at_the_races
Wow! That was crazy. As an aside, I love the name "The Storyteller."
Pro trick: you can watch movies at Flixzone. Me and my gf have been using them for watching loads of movies during the lockdown.
@Lawson Karsyn Definitely, been watching on Flixzone for months myself =)
I watched this a number of times and still cannot believe my eyes. Did Townsend ever explain what the fuck went through mind!!!
He's highly suspicious at best
To this day I never heard Townend explain himself.
RIP invitation only soo sad 😭😭😭
Is it anything to do with 2 red boards looking like red flags at the ends of the last fence.
Great commentary
R.I.P invitation only
Yep that was incredible.
I still can't decide what happened. I'm not a jockey but I think I would've bypassed the fence on the left-hand side (if there was a valid reason). Very suspicious we've never heard a full explanation.
For a bypass of the fence they would have gone to the right of the fence where paul went ad there is more room for horses to race to the line to the right hand side but if the fence was to be bypassed the railing and the wing would across the fence to signal the fence was being bypassed
I've watched it over and over and over again I cannot put anything on this other than his done it deliberate and it's a disgrace, 21 day suspension small fine, disgusting, what did Townend have to say about this? Nothing? Left without comment, this needs looking at again!
TheBarnster1008 Another fucking moron, You know fuckall
@@deano007 Haha you English prick
@@deano007 the irish is definitely more of a fiddle no two ways about it, if he/they were bypassing it, why weren;t they going around the left side of it like normal?? lol people who defend this bs
Amazing. I've made my share of serious mistakes but I was fortunate not to have them filmed at every angle and replayed endlessly..
I was really impressed by the way Al Boum Photo was able to do a hard right at a full gallop and take off like a bird out of the turn. Talented, talented horse, very athletic. And lucky jockeys, really; if Al Boum Photo hadn't been able to pull off the turn and take off like a bird out of there, he would have interfered with and possibly brought down more horses.
The more times you watch it the more deliberate it looks
Course it was deliberate and no commentator has the balls to say what happened .
Why would of it been deliberate
I agree, Townend stinks of a bent jockey
Yeah sure he heard a shout.. "Paul yer on yer own abandon ship lad"
ynwabalmer Cheers for the laugh bud
Very suspicious that
I wonder what odds you’d get on monbeg finishing second coming into the last straight/fence
73k was backed at 1.04 on Betfair...I wonder who by
Xhamster
Saying there was someone waving him off the fence is crap! I've watched multiple times, all views, there is no one, absolutely no one, not a person in the stands, not a track official, no one at all is waving him off the fence. This was deliberate. No way around it. For what ever reason it was completely deliberate. If I were the horses owner or trainer that POS jockey would be beaten to a bloody pulp and I would be in jail. To risk the horse he was riding as well as the other horses and their riders is without a doubt unconscionable!!!! He should be facing a lifetime ban. 25 days isn't even a slap on the wrist for what he did.
Deliberate lol jesus your braindead
Shut the fuck up
Watch from 4.06 and keep your eye on the men in high viz to the left of the fence as we see it. Yer man far left points to the fence and then Townsend looks back to see if it's safe to suddenly change direction. Unfortunately, he does not see Finnian Oscar
Yeah just noticed
@@andijw79 was that the reason? Sure, we'll never know.
Not sure he'd have spotted that, but he may have spotted the group walking away from the rail when there wasn't really a need to. Could have thought they were making room to let horses past.
Al boum photo 100% layed
Gee was this a fix or what? thank the lord I stopped betting years ago as i always felt some jockeys pulled their horses up!
AL BOOM PHOTO
Boom the gold cup
Al Boum Photo had done it again in 2020 Gold Cup.
Why didn't they interview him?
Thomas Manach too busy collecting his cash from betfair!!!
It looked to me like he had some grudge against Al Boum Photo's jockey & this was payback, especially as, apparently, he never spoke about the incident afterwards. It looked utterly deliberate.
Hard to believe this is the same horse that won two Cheltenham Gold Cups...
What on earth ?? if he heard a shout " don't go over, unsafe " ( that was the excuse i heard on talksport ), why did he not go off to his left, he looked round and could see the following horses to his right, he then went across right taking their ground, he must have known surely that it was a reckless action, it looks intentional, be very interesting to know where the shout came from ?
There's less room to go around to his left, plus that's the side of the fence where the spectators are.
The horse he took out had drifted right too and the eventual winner was also over there, so if he's saying he thought he heard a warning to bypass the last and on looking behind he sees one horse drifting right and another over that side too, then that will have reinforced the view that the last was being missed out, if he thought the jockeys on those two horse were bypassing too.
The manoeuvre was without doubt intentional but taking out the other horse wasn't and that was just the consequence of the manoeuvre because the other jockey wasn't actually bypassing the final fence.
Col Auty
Good point Sean especially the horse he took out, it's just when I look at 4.02 on the video, he's more left side, plus he really slows down, I understand the spectators are at the left rail but the gap is wide enough plus as I say he had slowed well down, why try to accelerate from almost pulled up across horses already in flight, he saw them on his right and that's what I fail to understand, then again it's a totally bizarre episode, glad my money was'nt on him lol !
he was winning that race then looks then takes horse outta the race. nothing with ever convince me that wasn't bent.
Then common sense won't convince you that this was a human error issue.
Human error 🤣🤣🤣 pricks ridden horses for years!!! Hes just a fiddling bastard is the own human error with him!!! 🤦🏻♂️
This and the one where Whisky Sour wins. The most nuts races this decade lol
This was the day I knew Al Boum Photo would win the Gold Cup,and again the following season.Infact i'm pretty sure he's going to win in2021 Gold Cup to make the treble.
How much did you lose ?
@@STHFGDBY 🤣🤣
watch it at a slower speed,he stops riding,he looks back and then turns the horse to the right to avoid jumping the last fence.Thre would be people waving flags telling him to avoid the fence,i dont see any.
That's only if the reason for not jumping the last had happened on the first circuit.
If you look at the far right at 1:40, you can see a man pointing them away from the fence. Is he the one who shouted out about missing the fence?
Townend clearly heard something and the fact the two horses he looked at appeared to be going around the fence made him make that split-second but ultimately wrong decision.
It's easy to make your horse lose a race on purpose, so I doubt he would've chosen to do it in such a bizarre and fairly-dangerous way.
This was a well-fancied horse in a good race, not a big drifter in some rubbish race at Wexford!
There are many occasions where you have a right to think your jockey has thrown a race but I really don't think this is one of them.
You could be on to something here. If you look closely, it seems the spectator may have shouted something, Townend then looks behind. Ya man then points away & Townend makes his move. It all happens very quickly, but having watched closely over & over again, it does start to look like this is what happened.
Ernest Thesiger this is the most blatant corruption I’ve ever seen. Professional Sportsmen don’t take any notice of idiots in the crowd. You must be extremely naive.
Almost every jockey is corrupt. They have to be if they want to make a decent living.
Looking at it again I think it's quite clear what's happened. He comes to the last and has a thought pop into his head along the lines of "Is this the last fence or was the other one the last fence". He looks round and sees 2 horses to his right hand side, and he must have thought they were going to miss the fence out, and go straight up the hurdle run in, so that's made his mind up (mistakenly), that he didn't have to jump the last. Very stupid mistake, but a genuine mistake in my view.
yeah at the last they were instructed to go round the fence where people were standing on the course .... crazy how your brain works mate
If you believe that then you will literally believe anything
Al Boum Photo wasn't meant to win, hence the jockey stop riding and steer it off to the right, plain as the nose on your face
WHY wasnt all the fence used. the fence could easily be made 6 ft wider.
he got me a very nice treble today...great jockey..well all make wrong mistakes
Yes, we all make mistakes in life generally. Incident packed race there including a horse involved and that horse made Willie Mullins one of his training feats of his career, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The horse in question, Al Boum Photo.
Long suspension after this?
Yes surely the jockey will get something like a 21 day suspension.
And a 21 day suspension is exactly what Paul Townend has got.
It is without doubt one of racing's WTF incidents........and they're have been many over the years you know!!!
Should have been 21years not days 🤦🏻♂️
I don't like Townend. In Australia there are huge penalties for jockeys. Sometimes years, occasionally they take their licenses. Townend would be the perfect candidate for losing his license. Penalties for jockeys in Britain and Ireland are light.
Георги Иванов spot on!!!
Everyone can see what happened. If he got a shout telling him to bypass the last fence, why was the fence not screened off? Why did he run into a part of the course where people were standing? It's obvious that he had to jump the fence. He knows that course as well as anyone.
He threw the race deliberately.
There can be no other conclusion.
You're talking nonsense I'm afraid.
If he wasn't trying to win then he wouldn't have ridden his horse so vigorously from 3 out to get it into a winning position.
@@seanscanlon9067 you are an idiot
it never ran out
it was rode to do so
well what can you say, just when you think you've seen it all then this happens, what's next, flying unicorns stop race or aliens suddenly abduct a horse that just has to win on the run in, lol I don't know no more
the only thing I've to say is The Storyteller has one hell of a story to tell
Well, if it was aliens, you darn sure couldn't yell "Fix!"
They let the jockstrap win three races the next day and said he is
I’m the Storyteller, and my stories must be told… I have many stories, tales for both the young and old… 🐴
The race was fixed for Storyteller and a Gordon Elliott tricast by the looks of it, he looks up to see Finians Oscar the only danger and took him out, it's quite obviously not a split second decision, he looked back for a good few seconds and could have even gone the other way but he decided to take out Finians Oscar, Irish races are so dodgy, the Irish trainers and jockeys all fix it among themselves to make money....I've seen it far too many times now Irish jockeys throwing away races...it's just fucking obvious and someone should make an investigative documentary on Irish racing.
claudius iam one of the stupidest comments I’ve read 🙈
When you watch it again at 4:08 you can see that when paul townend looks behind, you can see finians oscars head pointing toward bypassing the fence. So paul must have thought he was bypassing it. great win in the gold cup for al boum and paul.
Bollocks
I’m still pissed off that Rathinden was given a shit ride stayed on really well at the end after all the carnage but kept at the back! Problem when half the field are Mullins horses!
Jockey Townend willfully took out himself and the other horse so that Trainer Elliot horses could win and thereby trainer Elliot gets an even better chance of winning the Trainer Championship. This is his act of revenge to Trainer Mullins for having him riding in the shadows of Ruby Walsh who he(Townsend) thinks he is a better Jockey than.
Reply
He ws fit enough to speak to the stewards thou, they didn't say hey Paul come back tomorrow lol Prob wld have got more respect for doing so & Yes the stewards shld have been on point., The ban should have been straight away, earned enough from his three winners the following day to well & truely afford the holiday dont you think
Once again the stewards failed.!!
regardless of weather it ws a genuine mistake, or not
it was shocking shocking horsemanship, just shocking, just like his ride on Douvan in the champion chase, this horse always lays up with the place & is prone to making mistakes at his fences, yet townsend makes ANOTHER mistake & lets Un De Sceaux same stable have 6 lengths on him with four fences to jump, a horse he HAS ridden & KNOWS is a FANTASTIC jumper & will keep running to the line & stay every yards , Yet he doesn't try to close him down until in between the last two, Really..!! what ws he asleep before the last two fences, or did he hear someone shouting pmsl
With all due respect to you for defending his actions
Which cannot be explained with any rhythm or reason
How many times are these jockeys going to make a mistakes
weather it be wrongly judging what he heard or didnt hear or not riding a horse to its merits or horribly miss judging the pace, to many times there punishment for doing so is weak & to ban him yet but let him ride the next day is weaker still, sends out all the wrong messages
But hey it will keep on happening
Especially if people keep defending them the way they do
Telling something like it is isn't defending someone. Oddly enough it's merely telling something like it is.
All fix...
I had finians Oscar here
Gold cup winner.
Davy Russell must have the gods totally on his side and after watching this unbelievable outcome you would have to be a tool to back against him in any race?💎
Plenty of tools then.
What he was attempting to do was to deliberately impede another horse and rider. Hes made the biggest cock up of it ever !!! Should have got 6 months ban.
Gary Jessop here here!!! Protected by the ‘in the know’ brigade unfortunately 🤦🏻♂️
An embarrassment for Ireland and for Irish Racing right there folks!
Just about as obvious as you can get too. Townend was riding to place. That was the fix.
He panicked when the leading pair fell and, despite his best efforts, he was left perilously close to actually winning the race!!
So he steered his horse off the course.
The answers would come from investigating the betting patterns, but will an investigation even take place?
+AllyWheels - OK so he was apparently only riding his horse to a place and did so by riding it into contention to win by taking the lead at the second last.....What exactly do you mean anyway regarding riding for a place, for what reason?
You say "despite his best efforts, he was left perilously close to actually winning the race" when in fact it was BECAUSE of his efforts that he did. Look at the jump the jockey's horse makes at the first fence in the video and then watch the jockey only from there until jumping the second last and tell me that's not a jockey trying to win.
Apart from anything else, he hadn't even won the race anyway and both the jockey on the horse taken out thinks he would have won, and so did the jockey on the actual winner, so it would have been easy enough for the jockey here just to slow his horse right down approaching the last, to lose all momentum and let one or both of the other horses go by him and then just make sure he did regain the lead on the run-in after the last.
Meaning he would still have been placed, which he ended up not being placed anyway.
AllyWheels You fucking absolute moron
He should never be allowed on a racecourse again. A lifetime ban wouldn’t be long enough.
Smallredferrari thank god his ban didnt start today. Rode 3 lovely winners £££
+Smallredferrari - Stop talking nonsense.
Smallredferrari So if a lifetime ban wouldn't be long enough, how long should the ban be precisely? 🤔
Smallredferrari I'm still waiting for an answer to my question 🙂
Good job there was no lifetime ban Because he just rode this very horse to the gold Cup, congrats Paul and Alboum Photo, fingers up to the rest of the gobshites
if he wanted to miss the fence why didn't he go the easy way to the left
Because the spectators were that side and it could have been dangerous to and how is the left easier anyway, considering there was only a narrow gap that side and a wider one to the right?
Add to that, he thought the other two horses to his right were going to bypass the fence to the right too.
The natural racing bypass of the last is to the right as provides more racing room and a more natural racing line to the finish line but in the event of a bypass the railing and wing would of been moved across the fence
i blame punchestown race course as much as paul townend for not having a running rail before the final fence, because then the jockey wouldn't have tried to go round it.
i backed finians oscar, who i thought would have won but for being carried out as he was just beginning his charge; at worst he'd have been a close second, regardless of monalee's fall.
that's not my wallet speaking, as i don't back horses heavily; it was just frustrating that the crowd were denied a terrific finish.
it's good to see colin tizzard's horses running well, even if they've been unlucky lately.
he has some terrific horses for next season; shame cue card wont be there.
if i was a millionaire, i'd buy him and run him in hunter chases next season, but then again, if my auntie had bollocks, she'd be my uncle!
thanks for the comment,
if fox norton had run yesterday, i think he would have beaten un de seaux agaiin.
i also thought vision des flos was a shade unlucky not to win yesterday.
robbie power knew he had getebird and menglai khak beaten and probably went for home too soon.
the winner will not beat 'vision' next time.
I absolutely agree with you! Finians Oscar would have won!
thank you for your comment,
robbie power was aiming for the inside rail after the last fence.
he was delaying hitting the front too soon like last year when finians oscar idled and got caught by bacardys.
he will be the best stayer of all of these next season.
3 1/4 miles will suit him admirably.
cheers.
I backed Al Al Boum Photo Ew and @ 9.8 on the machine in running.Think he may have won as like Finians only gets going in the last quarter of the race.
Either way would have been nice to have seen what would have happened.Mistakes happen in all walks of life and people saying they looked at this many times and think its a fix need to go back on their medication.It would have been nice if Paul or the stewards had come out and said what reason he gave for his actions.
Best of luck for the rest of the meeting.We may need it....
thank you for your comments,
i agree it was a shame we didn't have the battle between the two best
horses in the race from the last, monalee looked beaten to me when he fell.
al boum photo has stepped up to grade one class, finian's oscar is still a bit of an enigma but 3 1/4 miles + will definitely suit him.
paul townend was lucky not to get a more severe ban for dangerous riding because he did a 90 degree turn in front of robbie power and could have seriously injured horse and jockey but i still trhink punchestown race course share the blame for not having a running rail on the right hand side 20 metres before the final fence, then no jockey would have attempted to run their horse round it.
And some people think this game isn't bent
No they don't, it's common knowledge that iffy stuff goes on within racing but that dosen't mean that that was the case here.
Sean Scanlon - Are you related to him?
+Crazy Fool - No.
🤣🤣🤣 this was as bent as they come!!! If people cant see that when its right in front of them what about all the quiet lesser obvious stuff 🤦🏻♂️
And another thing if he's a bent jockey how come he as not done this kind of thing before?
The talk of him throwing the race is nonsense. When he looks behind, the 3 horses immediately behind do look like they are moving right towards the hurdle course. He has less than a second to make a decision. If he jumps the last he can't get onto the hurdles course and he loses / is disqualified, so he decides to bypass and go onto the hurdles course, which was the wrong decision and then turns out to be horribly wrong. He's lost connections either 59k or 19k in prize money as he was not certain to win, but probably would have, (plus he's taken another out of the race and cost connections and jockey on that one their prize and commission), - plus his own commission which was a grand at least and possibly 3k. He was also ordered to forfeit his fee for the ride and got a 21 day suspension. The horse has also gone up 2lb's as a result. Total disaster, but nothing fishy.
why you dont look around, and boot it home....now imagine if Ruby done it.....
tamer biz
remember this one well he got a 21 day ban,should have been jailed for crookery along with mullins for this mullins is without a doubt the most shifty trainer out there
Apparently Paul Townsend had £300 on the storyteller
Hahaha!!!
Is that all jockeys can get on now these days, £300?
There's no apparently about what you are though
Crooks.
And now he wins a gold cup 😂
Robbie power probably killed Paul Townend in the weighing room
What made Paul Townsend do that?……. He is an Irish tinker cheat
i bet colin tizzard isn't very happy.
I presume you lot who are accusing him of doing that deliberately A, never make mistakes in a moment of panic and B, probably had money on his horse.
Jockey. Done 3 of g. Elliott
F, /c
Tricast
Odds was tht
100 k
He was paid. To do that
Stroke
Fact.
Paul Townend go home and retire
tamer biz you obviously don't know the character of the man, he heard a shout and had a nanosecond to respond. I used to work at Fairyhouse out on the course as a kid with my Dad. I used to ask him why the jockeys were always shouting at each other, he always said it was nerves.
tamer biz Paul is a gentleman and the ultimate professional, he has a double so far on day 2
The man made a mistake, he's human like all the rest of us.
Patrick Farrell it’s not about being careful or shouting at each other. Look at his rides on the favorites at Day 1. This guy is absolutely overrated, but that’s my opinion. Take care.
tamer biz in general horses that ran in either Cheltenham, Aintree or Fairyhouse Easter meeting don't do well at Punchestown. It's been a long season, some horses have already peaked, of course there are exceptions, perhaps Footpath today. Paul Townend had a triple yesterday and will probably bag a few today, I don't see the corruption that you do but that's not to say it doesn't go on all over the racing world. Punchestown is our Cheltenham equivalent, they all all trying hard, what happened yesterday is a shock to all of us, I just hope it wasn't foul play by another jockey, that would be disappointing.
Enjoy the racing today.
And Irish racing isn't fixed........
i was on al boum photo here tpically, put me off ever following the horse again haha, to say this is anything short of a disgrace is an injustice.
even more suspicious after that gold cup win
Joe You know fuckall you absolute idiot
3:25 is that gordon elliott behind the fence wonder if he gave paul the shout?
Jockey was just saving the horse for two cheltenham gold cups..💩💩
Wow 1:40 deliberate
Zergo Loko definitely.
even checks over his shoulder first!
Knowing the jockey it can't be deliberate, there has to have been a reason but I have no clue what it was.
Patrick Farrell looks Like foul play to me.
If you think this race is rigged you're nuts
All these dumb comments the red flag at the last was the decider!
I can't believe for 1 moment he fixed the race. Yes there are a lot of races that are fixed but this was not one of them.
You absolute idiot
@@lean2281 why are you commenting on something that happened 4 years ago? Go crawl back under the stone where you came from LMAO
@@derekwilliams7901 haven’t you just done the same thing
@@lean2281 lol
Rigged....as fooooook look at the betting ......says it all.
Fixed
lol
The only logical explanation is he thought the fence was to be missed out. It is a very very odd incident but there are many easier ways to lose a race than that.
What a scumbag to do this to the punters he obviously wants his horse to lose mullins and his team are always doing this kind of thing where unfancied horse wins the race and first of all string with main jockey on board bomb
You're talking rubbish I'm afraid considering Mullins and Elliott are both going for the trainer title and winning this race would have added €59,000 to Mullins's prize money total and the eventual winner here that was trained by Elliott, probably would have finished 3rd and added only €9,000.
Instead not only did the Mullins horse not get the €59,000 when bypassing the last fence, but it then meant Elliott horses finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th and picked up the €59,000, as well as €19,000, €9,000 and €2,000 to add to his prize money total.
So why would a jockey deliberately make the horse of the trainer who retains him throw away a winning chance, to then allow his rival who that jockey doesn't work for, to benefit from it?
People are so fucking stupid of course he has done it deliberately. Horse racing is corrupt in Ireland simply because most of the people involved are either related or friends it's a very close group of people who are fiddling the people all over the country. Anyone who knows anything about horse racing will agree.
How much did he get for that.... 🤣
Stop making excuses BENT RACE realised he was going to win and panicked
Don't talk nonsense, you only have to look at how hard he was riding to get the horse into a position to win to see that he was actually trying to win all along. If he wasn't trying or wanting to win, then it would have been easy enough not to ride the into a winning position and then he wouldn't have to supposedly stop it from winning anyway.
Are you familiar with the expression prevention is better than cure?
OK so you think he didn't want his share of the €59,000 prize money for winning the race then? Nor the tens of thousands of Euros and pounds that he is likely to miss out on through lost prize money and riding fees now that he has been given a 3 week ban?......I really hope for his sake that he got well paid for apparently deliberately losing this race, considering how much he lost by not winning it and will be losing during his ban.
As for apparently not being able to hear a shout, watch any video on here with a jockey wearing a helmet camera and you can hear plenty, including them celebrating themselves, as well as shouting out to each other if say they need a bit of room after being squeezed up by another jockey.
Sean Scanlon he got a three week ban for trying to win the race then 😂😂😂
Michael Moran he looks right and swerved and took oscar out .I don't know why he looked right you keep you head front and centre
Sean Scanlon good shout .the owners seem not yo be interested in 60 grand..but I've no explanation for the race
no brits win in eire at ALL COSTS
You have to be joking, we always welcome our British racing counterparts in Ireland and wish them every success...
its a shame that was finians Oscars last race maybe it was all boum photos fault he's dead
Oirish racing summed up beautifully.
The sooner all Oirish runners are banned from competing in the UK the better. Let them have their own filth fest.
Human error, I think he was trying to get the rail
Ken The Man McMillan Not for me, foul play, what jockey practically stops the horse in its tracks to go for the fence! Bent
He was trying to bypass the final fence when apparently under the impression that it was no longer meant to be jumped.
There really wasn't much benefit or need to be wanting the rail that late in the race.
Sean Scanlon I know that now, it looked like he was trying to get the rail at first but I have read the article on racing post
+Ken The Man McMillan - Yeah that's fair enough then.
He definitely got the rail
Townend is the worst jockey i have ever seen and thats without seeing this mullins please sack him
You do actually realise that you are talking rubbish right?
Al Boum Photo owned by a former bookmaker.
Jo Donnelly .
Enough said.