Paul Townend veered across the Punchestown track, taking Robbie Power and Finian's Oscar out of the Growise Champion Novice Chase at the last fence after mistakenly thinking he was to bypass the obstacle.
That was the evidence the Al Boum Photo pilot gave the Punchestown Stewards as he was handed a 21-day ban for dangerous riding.
Power and his mount were carried out before the final fence when challenging in the chaotic conclusion to the Grade 1 contest after Townend dramatically steered leader Al Boum Photo right.
A statement from the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board detailed the evidence given by both jockeys in the wake of the bizarre incident.
"Paul Townend said that he was riding with his head down between the last two fences and heard roaring on his left which caught his attention," according to the statement.
"He thought he had to bypass the fence but didn’t know which side to bypass on. He panicked and commenced his move to bypass the fence on the right side but then realised there was nothing on the fence to indicate a bypass was needed and tried to correct his actions but it was too late.
"He accepted in hindsight that there were no bypass procedures in place. He said he made a genuine mistake and apologised for what occurred."
A word on the Paul Townend incident at #Punchestown yesterday coming up on my @BoyleSports blog shortly. Like I said earlier, just human error 👍
— Robbie "Puppy" Power (@Robbie_Power_) April 25, 2018
For his part Power, who told stewards he could see no reason that would indicate the fence was being bypassed, tweeted this morning describing the incident as "just human error" and claimed there are no hard feeling between the pair.
Willie Mullins, trainer of Al Boum Photo, and Power were also not prepared to comment on Tuesday, but Power took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to offer support to his weighing room colleague.
"It's taken me a few hours to calm down from that very unfortunate incident at Punchestown with Paul Townend," he wrote. "Nobody feels worse than him, just human error #nohardfeelings #brilliantjockey."
The Storyteller picked up the pieces in the Champion Novice Chase to lead home a 1-2-3-5 for Gordon Elliott and tighten his grip on the Irish trainers' championship. He leads Willie Mullins by €405,839 heading into Day 2.
A hugely dramatic finish to the Champion Novice Chase #PunchestownFestival https://t.co/3qP47H9Tlr pic.twitter.com/f4INvhi4h3
— RTÉ Racing (@RTEracing) April 24, 2018
Follow the Punchestown Festival via our live blog on RTÉ.ie and the News Now App, or watch Robert Hall and Ted Walsh present live coverage on RTÉ2 from 4pm
