Cheltenham Festival bookies were jumping for joy after the Willie Mullins juggernaut was brought to a shuddering halt in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Racecourse bookmaker John Hughes claimed he had never had a better result in 25 years working in the ring after 2-9 favourite El Fabiolo was pulled up.
El Fabiolo was the final leg of Mullins trebles with winnings from Ballyburn, at 1-2, and Fact To File (8-13) left bookmakers carrying huge liabilities from multiple bets involving the shortest priced favourite of the week.
The stable’s two earlier victories had also taken Mullins one victory short of a century of wins at the fixture, after a first day treble.
But last year’s winner of the Arkle Trophy was pulled up by Paul Townend immediately after clobbering the fifth of the 13 fences to suffer his first defeat over fences.
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“He just guesses,” said ITV Racing pundit Ruby Walsh. “He doesn’t either go in or stand back. When he should lift his front ones, he doesn’t, puts down his off fore and goes out with his near-fore. You can’t continuously get away with that and he was out.”
Bookmakers had endured a day and a half of bruising results after five favourites and a number of other well backed horses had won and feared the worst going into the Betway-sponsored Champion Chase.
They had not anticipated El Fabiolo not completing and second favourite Edwardstone falling when already beaten at the last fence.
Hughes, trading from the number one pitch in the Cheltenham betting ring, said: “In my 25 years in Cheltenham, that’s the best result we ever got.
El Fabiolo is pulled up after a bad mistake knocked him out of the race (Javier Garcia/REX/Shutterstock)“Every treble in the country was waiting on El Fabiolo. We had a massive bet on Edwardstone who went out. We are back in the game.”
Coral’s David Stevens said: “It wasn’t up there with the Annie Power fall, but we needed a result and we go into day three with all to play for
For a brief moment Mullins was still in with a chance of reaching his landmark victory as Gentleman De Mee chased Captain Guinness.
But Rachael Blackmore’s mount, trained by Henry de Bromhead, held on by a length and a half to give the history-making jockey a set of Festival championship races to go with her successes in the Champion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Mullins said: “El Fabiolo got very low over a few of them. I was very concerned and then he jumped the last fence he stood back too far and didn't get high enough. Disappointing.”
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