PAUL Townend returned from injury on Saturday at Fairyhouse and it was like he had never been away as the four-time champion Jockey won on all three rides to record a treble on the card for himself and Willie Mullins.

Blue Lord (145) initiated a sparkling afternoon with a smooth all-the-way success in the opening beginners’ chase and, in the process, posted the fastest overall time of the day over fences.

As was always the case over hurdles, the son of Blue Bresil raced with plenty of enthusiasm as he measured his fences with accuracy, with a minor error at the third last the only blemish on his scorecard.

A comparison with the two-mile handicap chase on the card shows the overall race time to be around 20 lengths superior to Arahecan (130) which also proved to be the case when breaking the race down into sections, with the same variance at the line in a shortened version of the race after it was slightly greater (25 lengths) at halfway.

Blue Lord was eased after jumping the final fence although still posted a closing sectional of 88.5 seconds which was faster than Arahecan who was ridden out to the line to stop the clock at 90.5 seconds.

Cayd Boy (139) closed off best of the rest in Blue Lord’s race completing the concluding sectional in 89.2 seconds. The six-year-old looks more than capable of matching his achievements over hurdles, most likely when his attentions are switched to handicaps.

Stattler (140) was equally as impressive visually as his stablemate without reaching the same heights in terms of an overall time-figure as the early pace was slow.

The race time when adjusted for distance can be rated the same as Henry de Bromhead’s handicap winner although I would upgrade the performances of the winner and his nearest pursuers Fighter Allen and Ain’t That A Shame courtesy of their closing sectionals.

Stattler covered the ground from the fourth last in 84.5 seconds with his fast fluent leap at the final fence leaving the strong impression the six-year-old was still operating well within himself.

Fighter Allen (134) closed off in 86.3 seconds having been in the front rank throughout, while Ain’t That A Shame (128+) (86.7) made steady ground from the fourth last having raced in midfield early in the race.

Britzka

The hurdle races on the card were similar in merit on the clock when adjusted for distance with Britzka (110+) posting the most impressive closing sectional.

Gordon Elliott’s hurdling debutant registered a closing sectional of 81.8 seconds to illustrate his superiority over handicap winner Breezy Bell (103) (84.5) was greater than the 0.6 seconds which separated their overall race times.