Paul Townend has apologised for what he termed 'a genuine mistake ' which led to the top rider suffering a 21 days suspension for dangerous riding at Punchestown yesterday evening.

Townend was leading aboard Al Boum Photo approaching the final fence of the Grade 1 Growise Champion Novice Chase when manoeuvring his mount to the right causing the Willie Mullins-trained gelding to crash through the wing and also take Finian's Oscar out of the race.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IRHB) initially issued a very brief report on the stewards enquiry outlining Townend's misdemeanour and his suspension.

However a more detailed explanation has been published on their website this morning.

In his evidence, Townend said that he was riding with his head down between the last two fences and heard roaring on his left which caught his attention. He thought he had to bypass the fence but didn’t know which side to bypass on.

He panicked and commenced his move to bypass the fence on the right side but then realised there was nothing on the fence to indicate a bypass was needed and tried to correct his actions but it was too late.

He accepted in hindsight that there were no bypass procedures in place. He said he made a genuine mistake and apologised for what occurred.

Robert Power, rider of Finian's Oscar, said that he was coming to win his race before the last and was carried out. He described the incident as unfortunate and said he had no idea why it happened. He said he was not aware of any reason which would indicate that the fence was being bypassed.

Power also tweeted about the incident this morning saying, "It's taken me a few hours to calm down from that very unfortunate incident yesterday @punchestownrace with Paul Townend.

Nobody feels worse than him, just human error. #nohardfeelings #brillliantjockey"