Townend gets off mark with Charm

Paul Townend partnered his first Cheltenham Festival winner when the Arthur Moore-trained What A Charm made it an amazing six winners on the day for the Irish by justifying good support in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.

The 9/1 chance (12/1 this morning), winner of the Leopardstown November Handicap for John Oxx last year, appreciated the addition of cheek-pieces to step up on her previous three efforts over timber.

She travelled smoothly for Townend, and came to challenge Kumbeshwar (33/1) for the lead at the final flight. The duo engaged in a titanic tussle, with What A Charm emerging victorious by a neck.

Dhaafer (16/1) was four and a half lengths back in third, with strong-travelling 4/1 favourite Plan A another length and three quarters away in fourth.

Townend said: "It's unbelievable to ride a winner here and I'm very grateful to Mr Moore for letting me ride.

"I've been very unlucky to ride Hurricane Fly to a lot of wins and that will do for me. It's special to ride any Festival winner. This filly showed great guts to gallop up the hill and I'm just delighted. I just can't believe it."

Moore said: "Her first three runs all went a bit haywire. I think we were riding her a bit wrong, and the ground was a bit heavy for her.

"But we entered her for this race and we liked the way she was handicapped so she had to go. She had really turned in her coat with the nice weather, and everything went perfectly.

"That's my fourth winner here for Chris Jones, who is 86 and here with his family. This has given me as much pleasure as Klairon Davis' win in the Queen Mother (1996)."