Mullins eager to get to the bottom of Faugheen no-show at Leopardstown Willie Mullins will not rush into making any decisions on the future for Faugheen after he was pulled up behind shock winner Mick Jazz in the Ryanair Hurdle at Leopardstown. The 2015 Champion Hurdle hero was sidelined for the best part of two years after a stunning performance in the 2016 Irish Champion Hurdle, but appeared to have lost none of his ability when dominating his rivals on his return in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown last month. He was a prohibitively priced 2-11 favourite to stretch his Grade One tally to nine on the final day of Leopardstown's Christmas Festival but after initially adopting his customary pacesetting role, he weakened to the rear of the five-runner field on the run to the second-last flight and Paul Townend swiftly took him out of the race. Townend soon dismounted and Faugheen returned to the racecourse stables by horse ambulance but little over an hour later, Mullins was still at a loss to explain what happened. He said: " At the moment Faugheen is sound. He pulled up sound and the vets have passed him fine. He's not abnormal and not distressed. "Paul said he just felt very lacklustre over the first few furlongs and he definitely wasn't himself. "I'm sure something will arise. He might be incubating a cold or something like that, but at the moment we don't have any evidence of anything." Faugheen jumped the first couple of obstacles in front, but it was clear heading out onto the second circuit it might not be as straightforward as many expected, with his stablemate Cilaos Emery taking over the lead and the writing was soon on the wall for his legion of fans. Mullins added: " His work has been fine, so we had no worry about him coming here. The only observation I made before the race in the parade ring was he looked a little cold in his coat compared to our other horse Cilaos Emery, who looked fantastic. "Faugheen can look that way and sometimes they look like that and go out and win. "We have to go home and do whatever tests we can do and try to look for a reason. "This is obviously a huge setback. I'm not thinking anything at the moment. The important thing is he's sound to trot up, so it doesn't look like he's any leg trouble." It has been a challenging few days for the champion trainer, with Faugheen's demise following on from the disappointing displays of Yorkhill and Djakadam and Nichols Canyon's fatal fall on Thursday. There have been other peaks and troughs over the course of the meeting, but Mullins still managed to saddle four winners on the day at Leopardstown and Limerick combined, and 10 over the Christmas period. Reflecting on the week as a whole, Mullins said: " It's been up and down, but people were saying the other day what a terrible day we'd had and we had four winners including a Grade One and a Grade Three and today we've had four winners as well. "A couple of the stars have been beaten, which puts a real bad look on it. We've had better Christmases, you'd have to say." It has also been a tough week for Faugheen's owner Rich Ricci. The highly-touted Min passed the post in front in Wednesday's Grade One Paddy's Rewards Club Chase, only to lose the race in the stewards' room, while on the same afternoon, Sharjah crashed out at the final flight when looking the likely winner of the Future Champions Novice Hurdle. Dual Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Djakadam was pulled up in the Christmas Chase on Thursday and while Let's Dance provided the owner with some joy with a Grade Three success earlier on Friday's card, he was brought back down to earth by Faugheen's listless effort. He said: "When Cilaos Emery went by him, normally he would have picked up the bit and cracked on, but he just didn't. I knew we were toast then. "Some of Willie's horses have been in and out all week. Hopefully it's something that shows itself and we have a horse we can get ready for Cheltenham and fight another day with. "It's been an extraordinarily challenging week and it feels like a long, long winter at the moment."
