‘As soon as he took off my jaw was on the floor’

There are plenty still holding out hope that Faugheen will reproduce his machine days once more in today’s Champion Hurdle, despite his most recent lacklustre efforts at Leopardstown.

It is easy to forget now that he initially seemed bound for staying chases, as a winner of his 4yo maiden over three miles under Roger Quinlan at Ballysteen almost six years ago.

Certainly, nobody looking on was thinking Champion Hurdle when Rich Ricci’s son of Germany bagged a Grade Three hurdle on bottomless ground over three miles at Limerick in Christmas 2013.