Unibet Morgiana Hurdle (Grade 1)

ANZADAM might be waiting in the wings to appear in next week’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle but Willie Mullins suggested that Lossiemouth is his clear number-one in the Champion Hurdle picture after routing her Morgiana Hurdle rivals by 19 lengths under Paul Townend.

This was an eighth Grade 1 win for Susannah Ricci’s star mare, who has only finished out of the first two once in her career (when falling in last season’s Irish Champion Hurdle), and she hasn’t won many more easily than this one.

Only three rivals took on the reigning back-to-back Mares’ Hurdle heroine, and her odds of 1/5 were an indication of her superiority over the field on ratings. Townend gave the 159-rated mare a no-nonsense ride on the front end and there were virtually no anxious moments, other than a brief scare at the fourth last, when producing a slightly guessy leap.

From there to the third last, main market rival and stablemate Irancy (5/1), last seen winning a Grade 1 novice hurdle at the Punchestown Festival, began to feel the heat and dropped away shortly after.

That left Ndaawi as Lossiemouth’s closest pursuer, but he never seemed able to show his best on much more testing ground than he ideally wants, and the gap between the mare and the rest grew quickly between the third and second last flights.

Victory was never really in doubt, and it was left for the Harry Kelly-trained Glen Kiln - a superb improver through the past 12 months - to pick up €30,000 for finishing a never-dangerous second under Brian Hayes.

As for Lossiemouth, she breezed clear of the field and was trimmed to 3/1 favourite (from 4/1) with many firms for the Unibet Champion Hurdle.

Mullins, speaking after his record-extending 14th win in the Morgiana (and a 13th in 15 years), said: “I think it’s fairly clear there anyhow... She’s probably the best of what we have, isn’t she? We’ll see whether Anzadam can match that or go better.

“Lossiemouth was very good today. The race was run at an even pace on soft, heavy ground and she did what she needed to do, probably didn't do any more. It was in mine and Paul's head going out that we wanted to bounce out and go a bit sharper but I don't think they went anything like the pace they went at Kempton last year.

Simple tactics

"But, we don't want to light her up too much because as a four-year-old she was way too free. Irancy was very disappointing. Mark said it was the ground when he came in, but I don't know.

“I'd say Leopardstown would look the obvious place to go, up the road and go to a place where she runs well. She had that fall last year and she took a chance at the fourth-last today, so hopefully she doesn't do something like that again.”

Townend, now just one win behind Paul Carberry in the standings for most successful rider in Morgiana history (this his fifth win), took the blame for Lossiemouth’s only questionable jump in the contest.

“We kept it simple and she was entitled to do what she did,” said Townend.

“Did we learn a whole lot more about her? Probably not, but it's good to get her back on track and we'll see how we go from here.

“The jump at the last down the back was probably my fault. She was taking it in a little bit in front and I was kind of saying to her 'go on then if you want' and she took a chance at it, but she came for me. The good ones are meant to come for you. In a more competitive race, you’d be attacking that stride. She's used to taking them off those strides.

“She's simple to ride and riding her prominently looked the obvious thing today; she stays. We can go back to riding her the other way too.”

Best trip

On whether he feels Lossiemouth is better at two miles or two and a half miles, Townend added: “I don't think we learned because it wasn’t competitive enough there. She’s a very good filly and we'll know a lot more in a weeks' time, I think."

The Bowe family were rewarded for rolling the dice in Grade 1 company with Glen Kiln, despite being rated 16lb inferior to Lossiemouth and having to give her 7lb.

Harry Kelly said: “It’s not easy to win €30,000 and Brian just said he’d sit and see how much prize money he could pick up. He’s been improving all the time and I think he’ll improve again from today. You could see in the early part of the race that he was caught going that speed in terms of his jumping. He hadn’t experienced it at two miles at that level before. He had to have learned a bit.

“He’ll probably go to Leopardstown at Christmas but he does have an entry for [the Hatton’s Grace] next week and he’ll probably be left in it come the next confirmation stage. The extra distance would be the big thing for him next week.”