Watch: Lossiemouth leaves Champion Hurdle rivals toiling

Lossiemouth swept aside all rivals to claim a brilliant victory in the Unibet Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

The 7-5 favourite after opting for this race over the Mares’ Hurdle, a contest she has won twice, she was one of three Willie Mullins-trained runners and the choice of stable jockey Paul Townend.

The grey mare’s Cheltenham record was flawless going into Tuesday’s feature race and remained so afterwards, never looking in any sort of trouble ahead of a six-and-a-half-length defeat of Brighterdaysahead as The New Lion came home in third.

Alexei ran a big race in fourth, just ahead of gallant defending champion Golden Ace.

“She has that mare’s pedigree which gives her that bit of speed and the cheekpieces, I think, just made a huge difference,” said Mullins.

“It made her concentrate that bit more and, you know, as horses get older they probably, like the rest of us, we start looking for ways out of doing hard work and this really invigorated her.

“When I saw her working in them the other morning and when she pulled up, Paul pulled up and, you know, I spoke to him and we both had the same feeling that this was the way to go. And then the race looked so open we thought, well, why not, let’s go for it.

“Well, you know, we were all anxious until the third-last and then I saw her hitting the third-last spot on and I looked back at JP’s (McManus) colours (The New Lion) and I thought, right, he’s starting to come under pressure and I thought when he was coming under pressure he was the one I was worried about.

“To win the Champion Hurdle definitely outranks everything else she’s done. But to come back here with four years in a row is an achievement in itself but then to win four years is, she’s gone Triumph, Mares’ twice and then this and it’s been superb.

“Just 12 months ago State Man would have left her for dead. When State Man fell last year, he might have brought her down!”

Townend said: “She was good today in everything she did. I was just able to put her where I wanted, to go forward when I wanted, come back when I wanted and when I gave her a squeeze 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 and 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.

“It’s a funny place, like it’s so straightforward when you’re on the best one and it’s so hard to ride around here when you’re not going as well as the ones around you.

“The likes of her are a pleasure to ride in big races like that. For her to keep coming back and to land the Champion Hurdle on this attempt was brilliant.

“It’s amazing when you stand next to Willie on the gallops and something goes past him. He’ll notice it. 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.”

Owner Rich Ricci said: “It’s unbelievable, magic, great, it’s 10 years since Annie Power won, it’s hard to win these races and she always tries and all credit goes to Willie.

“About 10 days ago Paul got off after a piece of work and said if I’m going to ride one winner at the Cheltenham Festival it’s that horse in the mares’ race and then he said ‘I just want to try with cheekpieces in a piece of work’ and he did it and he said that did the trick.

“She’s always just come alive at this track, when she gets down that hill she comes on the bridle. She loves this place. It was a long night last night, but it’s brilliant, it’s fantastic and it’s great, the reception we got was great. People are so kind, it’s wonderful and it’s great for the sport, I think.

“I’ve always been welcomed by the sport, you know I’ve got a high profile in my business dealings, not all of it necessarily popular but I’ve always found racing has been incredibly nice to me and kind and took me as they found me and I love it and it’s been a great thing for myself and my family.

“I’d love to win the Gold Cup now (has favourite Gaelic Warrior), hopefully we can do the double on Friday!”