Lossiemouth WINS Champion Hurdle on first day of Cheltenham Festival jockeyed by Paul Townend – after a masterstroke choice by coach Willie Mullins on the gallops
Paul Townend loves motorsport and was once left starstruck by Max Verstappen, so it was no wonder the analogy had him smiling.
Watching him perched on Lossiemouth’s back, tightly gripping hold of her grey head, as his rivals started to frantically push and cajole was the equivalent of watching cyclists furiously pedalling to keep pace with a motorbike. Ultimately, you knew there was only going to be one outcome.
‘It’s a good way of putting it,’ Townend beamed. The best National Hunt jockey of his generation is no stranger to big race victories – here was his 39th Festival success – but this joyride, slamming Brighterdaysahead and The New Lion, in the Unibet Champion Hurdle had struck a particular chord.
‘She was so good in everything she did,’ he enthused, thrilled that he had exorcised the memory of last year’s final flight fall on State Man. ‘I was able to put her where I wanted, to go forward when I wanted, come back when I wanted. When I gave her a squeeze off the bend, she galloped for me.
‘That separates the really good ones from the good ones. It’s fun. You turn the top of the hill and you’re coming down and you’re able to hold them. You know the one inside you is going as fast as they can and you’re just able to dip them a little bit, it was exhilarating.’
Lossiemouth and Paul Townend claimed the Champion Hurdle on the first day of Cheltenham
But it was only possible because of the touch of a genius. Townend had the responsibility of steering Lossiemouth over eight obstacles for Rich Ricci, the mare’s owner, but the reason she ended jumping on this two-mile helter-skelter was down to Willie Mullins.
Ricci wants his horses, who run in distinctive pink silks with lime green dots, to win. He’s not precious about which races they contest, he just wants success and it had anticipated Lossiemouth would be aimed at The Mares Hurdle, which effectively would have been hers for the taking.
Mullins, by contrast, is always thinking of another angle. Townend came back from a gallop at their Carlow stables 10 days ago and said the work was good enough to win Thursday’s two-and-a-half mile event for the third time. Her trainer, on the other hand, had noticed something else.
‘It’s amazing when you stand next to Willie on the gallops and something goes past him,’ Townend explained. ‘He’ll just notice something. He only sees them for a second when they’re going by and he sees more than if people were studying the videos for hours. He’s a remarkable man.’
Not surprisingly, Mullins was keen to defer all praise to the horse. He’s handled the career of some exceptional fillies for Ricci, headed by the 2016 Champion Hurdler Annie Power, but it was hugely significant that he wanted to mention Lossiemouth alongside Quevega, who won at six straight Festivals.
‘She’s a star mare,’ said Mullins, who also won The Arkle with another flying filly, Kargese – though that race had a sting when Hansard, trained by Gary and Josh Moore, suffered a fatal injury after breaking down on a run between fences.
‘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. When I put cheekpieces on her the other morning I thought: “Wow, that’s the old Lossiemouth.”
‘I had a chat with Paul and he thought the same. I had a quick chat with Rich on Saturday evening and we made the decision at the last minute.’
Trainer Willie Mullins (right) made a superb decision to run Lossiemouth in the event
It may have been the last minute but it was a thrill-a-minute day, watched by a crowd of 57,242 – an improved figure on each of the last two years. The atmosphere was outstanding, the electricity beginning when Old Park Star surged away with the SkyBet Supreme Novices Hurdle.
All talk emitting from the Seven Barrows yard of Nicky Henderson about this handsome horse had been positive and it was wholly appropriate, an hour after Constitution Hill had been cheered around the paddock in a farewell to jump racing fans, that his trainer was holding court.
A flat career beckons for Constitution Hill but Old Park Star has the ability to take a high rank over fences. Gordon Hall, who owns the gelding with his wife, Su, needed “five or six pints of Guinness and a couple of Jamesons” to settle his nerves but what a release this proved to be.
‘It’s sad that Constitution Hill isn’t coming here to race,’ said Henderson, who had mulled over a Champion Hurdle bid for the nine-year-old. ‘But it’s nice to come up with another youngster who has got his life in front of him. This is only the beginning.’
