Unibet Champion Hurdle (Grade 1)

IT took three years for us to see her in the race, but, boy, was she worth the wait. Lossiemouth proved a class apart in the 2026 Champion Hurdle, as she reversed Dublin Racing Festival form with Brighterdaysahead to enter truly elite status as a four-time Cheltenham Festival winner.

In a race where there appeared to be a real emphasis on quickening, Paul Townend had Susannah Ricci’s 7/5 favourite in prime position right behind her front-running Leopardstown foe. She raced sharply in the first-time cheekpieces, which almost worked such a treat for stablemate State Man 12 months earlier, and was always likely to possess the more potent turn of foot of the pair.

The New Lion, sent off at 3/1 to follow up his Turners Novices’ Hurdle win of a year ago, was given a safety-first ride out wide by Harry Skelton and probably wasn’t seen to best effect with how the race unfolded. Giving 7lb to two top-class mares and beaten a total of seven lengths, he emerges from this with credit while looking in need of a greater stamina test.

By and large, it felt as though the majority of the boisterous crowd of 57,242 (up from 55,498 last year) revelled in this triumph for Lossiemouth. Willie Mullins had felt her Irish Champion Hurdle performance was lacking a “spark”, and the vibes ever since she arrived at Prestbury Park were that she was rightly back on terms with herself. This six-and-a-half-length success confirmed it.

“She’s a star mare,” said the back-to-back champion trainer of Britain and Ireland.

“Just to come back four years on the trot, never mind win, puts her in a league of her own I think. She’s nearly getting into Quevega territory. It was an open race and, when I put cheekpieces on her the other morning, I thought ‘Wow, that’s the old Lossiemouth’.

“I had a chat with Paul after the piece of work and he thought the same, so I had a quick chat with Rich [Ricci] after racing on Saturday evening and that was literally the first time we’d spoken about it.”

Townend added: “You probably couldn’t ride her to go any better than it did. She was much more like herself today than the last day; I knew very early that day that we weren’t going, and I knew very early today that we were. The race didn’t go totally as I had planned in my head - the start got messy, but it probably went better than I expected, with Jack [Kennedy] in front of me, and I was able to do what I wanted.

“I think she’s so honest and genuine, that on her back, you know whether it is happening or not. I don’t think it is the make-up of the race, I think it’s physically, mentally or emotionally - whatever it is that she’s got in her head - that matters, but she was on song today.

“When we worked her in cheekpieces, she just came alive. I was on the fence about the Champion Hurdle, but I thought she needed to find that little bit of spark that we thought she had before, but Willie has trained her differently as well, and he’s forgotten more about training racehorses than I’ve ever known.”

At the end of day one at the Festival, Lossiemouth was a top-priced 7/2 chance for the same race next year, while Brighterdaysahead looks set to go chasing in 2026/’27 (as was her intended plan before a hold-up).

Jack Kennedy, rider of Brighterdaysahead (second)

“She ran a blinder, and that puts the whole ‘doesn’t like Cheltenham’ thing to bed. Over two miles, the ground was probably a shade quick for her. It’s not that she doesn’t act on it - she probably just wants further on it. I was happy enough in front. She jumped and travelled and she ran her race.”

Dan Skelton, trainer of The New Lion (third)

“I imagine we’ll go to Aintree. The horse has run fantastically - jumped great, travelled round well, did everything he was asked to do. The preparation’s been good and he’s run his heart out; he just got beat. Hats off to the winners.”