Lossiemouth proved a class apart in the Unibet Champion Hurdle, beating old rival Brighterdaysahead by six and a half lengths.
Lossiemouth had been beaten by Brighterdaysahead on very testing ground in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown last month, but she turned the tables in style back on a sounder surface.
Always going well and tracking Brighterdaysahead, Lossiemouth, who was wearing cheekpieces for the first time, jumped into the lead at the second last and readily asserted early in the straight. She was a couple of lengths clear on the approach to the final flight and impressively extended that advantage up the run-in.
Brighterdaysahead stuck to her task to hold onto second from leading British challenger The New Lion who lacked the pace to land a blow on the impressive winner.
It was a fourth Cheltenham Festival victory for Lossiemouth who landed the Triumph Hurdle in 2023 and the last two editions of the Mares' Hurdle. Lossiemouth's participation in those Mares' Hurdles had been somewhat controversial as she had been widely considered of Champion Hurdle quality - she proved that point emphatically to register a tenth Grade 1 success.
Lossiemouth was providing trainer Willie Mullins with a sixth win in the Champion Hurdle and a second for rider Paul Townend. She was carrying the silks of Rich and Susannah Ricci who won the Champion Hurdle with Faugheen in 2015 and Annie Power in 2016.
Annie Power was the first mare to win the Champion Hurdle this century but five of the subsequent ten renewals have been won by females.
16:00 Cheltenham - Unibet Champion Hurdle result
1st Lossiemouth 7/5 favourite
2nd Brighterdaysahead 7/2
3rd The New Lion 3/1
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A delighted Mullins said: "She is a star mare. To come back four years on the trot, never mind win, that puts her in a league of her own I think. She is nearly getting into Quevega territory!"
Cheekpieces a help for Lossiemouth
On the decision to fit cheekpieces, the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival said: "It was an open race and when I put cheekpieces on her the other morning I thought that she was back to the old Lossiemouth.
"I had a chat with Paul after the piece of work and he felt the same. I asked Paul what did he think and he said she flew and I thought the same."
Mullins felt the cheekpieces had a significant impact and added: "She has that mare’s dam side pedigree which gives her that bit of speed and the cheekpieces made a huge difference.
"They made her concentrate for a bit more. As horses get older, probably like the rest of us, they start looking for ways out of doing hard work, but this really invigorated her."
Lossiemouth, a well-backed favourite, didn't give her supporters many anxious moments, and Mullins thought she looked the winner from a fair way out.
He said: "I saw her jump the third last, which she met right, then I looked back and saw The New Lion starting to come under pressure. I thought when he was coming under pressure, as he was the one I was worried about, that I thought we should have the measure of the rest of them.
“To win a Champion Hurdle definitely outranks everything she has achieved, but to come back here four years in a row is an achievement in itself.
"It has been the Triumph, the Mares’ Hurdle twice and now this. It is superb."
No excuses from connections of placed horses
Brighterdaysahead ran much better than she had when a tired fourth in last year's Champion Hurdle and trainer Gordon Elliott was pleased with her effort. He said: "I was delighted with the run. She got beat by a very good mare. Jack [Kennedy] said that the ground felt a bit quick for her. She will probably step up to two and a half miles at Aintree now. She has done nothing wrong, but just didn’t win. We are very happy with her."
At Aintree she could meet The New Lion, whose trainer Dan Skelton was also proud of how his contender performed. He said: “He has run beautifully. We got a clear round and he jumped fantastically. We have had a great build up to the race and his training has been good. I’ve absolutely no excuses whatsoever as he has given seven pounds to two great mares.
“We will head on to Aintree, all things being equal, over two and a half miles around there. Technically it should suit him better, but we have never said he is a slow horse, and he is not a slow horse as he has finished third in a Champion Hurdle. I’m very proud of him."
Timeform View from the Track: David Cleary
Lossiemouth, in landing the Champion Hurdle in decisive fashion, added a fourth Cheltenham Festival success to her C.V with a career-best performance. Whether the cheekpieces she was wearing for the first time made a difference or not, she certainly seemed pin sharp, cruising through the race and able to draw away from her rivals in the straight, shaken up on the run-in to win going away by 6½ lengths.
Slick jumping and an ability to quicken having been the hallmarks of so many Champion Hurdle winners over the years, and on ground that was borderline Good/Good to Soft, Lossiemouth's turn of foot was the decisive factor. She'd moved up to press her old adversary Brighterdaysahead from halfway. Going the easier of the pair off the turn, she took two lengths out of that rival before the last and extended the advantage all the way to the line.
Lossiemouth might have been bidding for a Mares' Hurdle hat-trick had State Man not been sidelined for the season, and obviously Constitution Hill and Sir Gino were other notable absentees, whose non-appearance eased her task.
That said, Lossiemouth, gaining the fifth victory for a mare in the last seven runnings of the Champion, produced a performance not far off Honeysuckle's best in the race. Honeysuckle was another four-time Festival heroine, her two wins in the Mares bookending two victories in the Champion itself. The first of those Champion wins came as a seven year old, the age that Lossiemouth is now. Clearly, for the remarkable Lossiemouth, a Quevega six-timer is not out of the question.