Lossiemouth swept aside all rivals to claim a brilliant victory in the Unibet Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
The 7/5 favourite, who was targeted at this race over the Mares’ Hurdle – a contest she has won twice – was one of three Willie Mullins-trained runners and the choice of stable jockey Paul Townend.
The grey mare’s Cheltenham record was flawless going into Tuesday’s feature race and remained so afterwards, never looking in any sort of trouble ahead of a six-and-a-half-length defeat of Brighterdaysahead as The New Lion came home in third.
Alexei ran a big race in fourth, just ahead of gallant defending champion Golden Ace.
“She has that mare’s pedigree which gives her that bit of speed and the cheekpieces, I think, just made a huge difference,” said Mullins.
“It made her concentrate that bit more and as horses get older they probably, like the rest of us, we start looking for ways out of doing hard work and this really invigorated her.
Lossiemouth leaves Brighterdaysahead in her wake in the Champion Hurdle
“When I saw her working in them the other morning and when she pulled up, Paul pulled up and I spoke to him and we both had the same feeling that this was the way to go. And then the race looked so open we thought, why not let’s go for it.
“We were all anxious until the third-last and then I saw her hitting the third-last spot on and I looked back at JP’s (McManus) colours (The New Lion) and I thought, right, he’s starting to come under pressure and he was the one I was worried about.
“To win the Champion Hurdle definitely outranks everything else she’s done. But to come back here four years in a row is an achievement in itself but then to win four years is, she’s gone Triumph, Mares’ twice and then this, and it’s been superb.
“Just 12 months ago State Man would have left her for dead. When State Man fell last year, he might have brought her down!”
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