Nothing lost in defeat or victory as Supasundae shines in gloom of Samcro and Melon eclipse

Supasundae was a fortunate winner of the Punchestown Hurdle (Racingfotos)

Punchestown racegoers went to bed on Thursday night thinking of the prospect of two heavyweights meeting in a novel affair.

They woke to news of something similar, as history was created when the leaders of North and South Korea met in the demilitarised zone between their two countries.

But the seismic events taking place in Asia meant little or nothing to the Punchestown faithful when 5.30pm came around and Samcro and Melon clashed in the BetDaq 2% Commission Champion Hurdle.

The market was not sure; Samcro edged towards evens on the exchanges having been punted into nearly 4-6 earlier in the day, while he went odds-against in-running after the first couple of hurdles.

However, as they approached the third-last, everything was going as smoothly as Kim Jong Un's summit with Moon Jae-In.

Samcro had closed up stylishly to track the front-running Wicklow Brave, while Melon had cruised almost upsides him. What happened next was something like a 50,000-1 shot: two top-class hurdlers fell at the same flight.

Independently.

Simultaneously.

Inexplicably.

Samcro, it appeared, had not really even made a mistake. Gordon Elliott put his hands behind his head, barely able to move, just praying that the horse would get up. He did. So did Melon.

These festivals can be a lonely place – Elliott will tell you as much – and it was a tough week for Jessica Harrington up until that point, considering the loss of Our Duke and her struggle for a winner. But then again this woman is made of iron, as was Magic Of Light, who rallied gamely to win the mares' novice handicap chase under Robbie Power earlier in the afternoon.

She admitted after that victory that she had feared the unthinkable: an entire week without a Punchestown winner. Half an hour or so later, she had won the feature Grade One with Supasundae in circumstances so dramatic as to render the Al Boum Photo episode on Monday just a withering memory.

"I felt he was going every bit as well as the other two," she said, perhaps optimistically.

Elliott was rushing to find out about the welfare of his great white – and now no longer unbeaten – hope at the time.

"It's been an up and down week, that is the game we are in," he said. Samcro is OK - hopefully he is OK. Once the horse is OK and Jack [Kennedy] is OK, we will be there to fight another day. It's a great game to level you."

At this stage, that the title had been officially confirmed as over was utterly irrelevant. Punchestown was akin to funereal, the only positive being that neither Samcro nor Melon was dead. The atmosphere certainly was.

Elliott knows that Michael O'Leary may pay the bills but the public feel a little ownership of Samcro too. "It was gutting," he added. "For Samcro, for Jack, for the public. Everyone loves the horse. Thankfully he's OK.

"I couldn't have been happier with how he was jumping and traveling at the time. Jack was happy too. He's here to fight another day we'll keep our head up and keep smiling."

It's not easily done when a lead of half-a-million Euros is obliterated for the second year running. No journalist will ask him about the title race too readily next season. If it happens, it happens.

That Dortmund Park provided him and O'Leary with a Grade One in the shape of the novice hurdle felt right.

Staggeringly, after the race, it was pointed out that Elliott was now the only trainer to have earned more in the entire season than Mullins has earned in just four days at Punchestown.

If some other trainers are sulking, Harrington is not.

"What Willie has done is absolutely incredible. My reaction to this is to work harder – to improve. That's what you have to do."

Jessica Harrington was overjoyed at Supersundae's Grade Ones success over two miles (Racingfotos)

On a day that started with Alpha Male winning the KFM Hunters Chase by 30 lengths, another saw his unbeaten record smashed and his future up in the air, but at least he has a future.

Death or serious injury to Samcro here – considering his status as a novice in a senior race – would have been hard to take for anyone who loves this epic sport.

But Samcro is still with us, ditto Melon. Neither Alan nor Ann Potts was around to see Supasundae win either of his Grade Ones this season, and the merit of the campaign the horse has endured should never be lost just because of victories achieved at the expense of others with a greater profile.

“He’s just a remarkable horse, it doesn’t matter what distance, he always runs his race. Every race this season has been a Grade One and he hasn’t been out of the first three. He’s just a very, very good horse, really honest," reflected Harrington.

“And he takes his races so well. He went to Cheltenham and lost just 4kg. Nothing fazes this fella and it was the same when he went to Aintree, he lost 6kg.”

Many of us lost something today. But ultimately we lost nothing.