Funiculi Funicula makes an impression on debut for Mullins

Funiculi Funicula looked a name to note in making a winning start for Willie Mullins in the Monroe Hurdle at Clonmel on Wednesday.

Runner-up on his only outing in France, the five-year-old went one better after 453 days off the track, with a 17-length victory from the front in the hands of Paul Townend, who was clearly impressed with the 4-7 favourite, who shortened markedly in the ante-post market on the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in the immediate aftermath.

“He’s a nice horse and on the form of the race in France he was entitled to do that,” he said.

“What he had been showing us at home was nice. I thought we went a good gallop for the ground and we were spread out the length of Clonmel.

“You are probably going quicker than you feel on him. Everything is very natural and very easy to him.

“We like him a lot and hopefully he has a bright future.”

Mullins and Townend were out of luck in the Munster Hurdle, as Beckett Rock profited from the jumping frailties of his two key rivals to claim top honours.

Five runners went to post for the two-mile-one-furlong contest, with the betting dominated by the Mullins-trained pair of Bunting and Got Glory at 5-6 and 2-1 respectively.

Bunting made much of the running before a mistake three from home saw Townend almost ejected from the saddle.

The six-time champion jockey did well to keep the partnership intact and he remained firmly in contention rounding the home turn, but Henry de Bromhead’s 5-1 shot Beckett Rock was travelling better in the hands of Rachael Blackmore.

Danny Mullins was producing Got Glory with a major challenge when she crashed out at the second-last, leaving Beckett Rock and Bunting to battle it out, and the former was always doing enough on the run-in to win the argument by three-quarters of a length.

Beckett Rock was a 15-length winner on his hurdling debut at Gowran Park in November 2023, but was well beaten on his return from over a year off the track at Punchestown last month.

De Bromhead said: “It was nice to see him step forward from his first run. He got a bit lost the last day.

“He got hurt after he won on debut at Gowran and Michael (O’Flynn, owner) has been really patient with him and it’s nice to see his patience being rewarded.

“He toughed it out there. Obviously things fell his way a little bit, but we’ll take it.”