Just when you think it could not get any better for the Closutton juggernaut, it did and Jade De Grugy sauntered to victory in the Grade 1 SBK Irish EBF Mares’ Champion Hurdle on the final day of a remarkable 2025 Punchestown Festival.

The crowds flocked to the Kildare track all week to sample the cream of the racing action and it was no different today, with 33,158 in attendance, a significant increase from last year’s 25,396. The aggregate attendance came to 136,651, an increase of 15.5% from the 118,318 that came through the turnstiles 12 months ago.

With the promising Hey Sunshine (11/2) following up in the Lawlor’s Of Naas Handicap, it left trainer Willie Mullins with 15 winners for the week. Ten of those were Grade 1s and notably, they were supplied for eight different owners.

The SBK Irish EBF Mares’ Champion Hurdle was set up to be a match but the market spoke volumes, with Jade De Grugy heavily supported into evens favourite from 3/1, while Brighterdaysahead, a dual Grade 1 winner over the geldings including Boodles Champion Hurdle hero State Man in the Morgiana Hurdle at this venue, drifted to 6/4.

It became a two-horse affair after the fourth-last, when Paul Townend increased the revs on Jade De Grugy, tracked all the while by Sam Ewing on his Gordon Elliott-trained mare.

It was the horse trained by Willie Mullins and owned by Kenny Alexander that began to stretch clear however and Ewing was sending out distress signals at the back of the penultimate obstacle.

But the time the leader cleared the last, it was all over and a very tired Brighterdaysahead was overhauled by the winner’s stablemate and ownermate, Gala Marceau for second.

“I thought we might go a little bit quicker early,” explained Townend of his mid-race move up the inner of pacesetter Wyenot and Brighterdaysahead.

“I didn’t want to be outside Sam, helping him, so when he jumped out I said I’d go in there, get track position and try and dictate it. She stays well but at least I was able to pull the trigger from the front end when I wanted to.”

Alexander revealed that four-time Champion Hurdle winner, dual Champion Hurdler and former Boodles Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle, gave birth to a colt by Blue Bresil yesterday and while Jade De Grugy has some way to go to match the Scot’s pride and joy, she will chart a familiar route.

“I backed her but not enough to make that price move,” Alexander said on RTÉ. “She’s done it proper and we’ll win the Mares’ Hurdle next year. That was meant to be Gala Marceau’s last run, she’s been covered by Walk In The Park but if she doesn’t take, we might run her again after that.”