Cheltenham Festival 2026: Lossiemouth leaves Champion Hurdle rivals toiling

Lossiemouth swept aside all rivals to claim a brilliant victory in the Unibet Champion Hurdle at the 2026 Cheltenham Festival.

The 7-5 favourite after opting for this race over the Mares’ Hurdle – a contest she has won twice – she headed a trio of Willie Mullins-trained runners and carried the hopes of stable jockey Paul Townend.

The grey mare’s Cheltenham record was flawless going into Tuesday’s feature race and remained so afterwards.

Lossiemouth never looked in any sort of trouble ahead of a six-and-a-half-length defeat of Brighterdaysahead as The New Lion came home in third.

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Huge difference

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.

🏆 Lossiemouth wins the Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy! 🏆#ITVRacing | @WillieMullinsNH pic.twitter.com/RyXRYZgJmX

— ITV Racing (@itvracing) March 10, 2026

“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!”

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