Strong run edged out Killultagh Storm in an epic finish to the BMW Chase but the opening day festival highlight left the runner-up's trainer, Willie Mullins, fuming.
On the run to the second last Killultagh Storm jumped a spray-painted wood chip path that had also been jumped by a horse in an earlier race.
"That is just not acceptable for a Grade One track. The horse has lost his balance and been beaten just a short head.
"It's not good enough at all. You might accept it at a small track but this has cost me a Grade One race," Mullins declared.
The path is situated at the site of an old fence and it was later covered with grass for the handicap chase.
"The grass just hasn't grown enough there so we covered it with wood chips and painted it green. We did something similar at Fairyhouse and it was fine," explained the clerk of the course, Joe Collins.
It was another controversial incident at Punchestown after the necessary revision of the cross-country course over the weekend. But there were no dramatics at the same spot in the later steeplechase.
"Not all the horses are jumping it. It is just wood chip. But maybe they should not have spray-painted it because horses are used to working on wood chip," offered rider Conor O'Dwyer, who ran third in the BMW on Fadoudal Du Cochet.
It was Strong Run that emerged best, however, and he would have been an unlucky loser having made a mistake at the last that left Killultagh Storm, whose rider Ruby Walsh got a one-day whip ban, back into it.
"That was his only blip. He was pretty much foot perfect everywhere else," said Noel Meade who, along with Carberry, later doubled up in the other Grade One with Scottish Memories.
The ex-listed Flat winner overhauled Ballyhamsphire Boy a length and a half in the Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle and if his back allows it, the Smurfit Champion Hurdle could be an aim for 2003.
"There is no Istabraq around and while Hors La Loi is very good, he is not young. The one thing this horse will love is that hill," said Meade.
The question mark is Scottish Memories' history of back problems, including a cracked vertabrae just behind the saddle.
"That's why it can take a while to get going," Meade added. "But as Paul said, when he does get going, he goes!"
Adamant Approach could only mange third in the big hurdle and Knife Edge was a fourth-last faller in the BMW.
The only relief for favourite backers was the well-backed Rapid Deployment in the handicap hurdle.
Charlie Swan's mount sliced through the field to win well and recover some lost ground in Pat Hughes's affections.
Rapid Deployment broke the trainer's arm with a kick some weeks ago but his aggression was channelled positively this time. "Any time he stopped in the parade ring he kicked back and I must have warned 20 people who got near him. But this makes it all worthwhile," grinned Hughes.
In 1953, Paddy Mullins trained his first Punchestown Festival winner in the La Touche and the 83-year-old showed he hasn't forgotten how with a double. Native Endurance was four lengths too good for the favourite, Copernicus, in the Ellier Chase and Liberman also carried Pat O'Donovan's colours to success in the bumper.
Yesterday's opening day attracted a crowd estimated at "just over 13,000" by a course spokesperson. The Tote turnover was €571,445 but no bookmaker figure was available.
