Lossiemouth still Champion Hurdle-bound after fall gifts State Man triumph

The most significant news after the Irish Champion Hurdle on Sunday was that Lossiemouth got up. Willie Mullins’s mare, the odds-on favourite, took a crashing fall four out in the day’s feature race, all but bringing down State Man, her stable companion and the winner for the last two seasons, in the process. State Man was effectively left to come home alone, but at that moment, the sight of Lossiemouth bouncing back to her feet, seemingly unscathed, was all that anyone wanted to see.

Until the favourite’s dramatic departure, Sunday’s race had been a private duel between Lossiemouth and State Man, with both horses hurdling fluently and a long way clear of their three, outclassed rivals.

A memorable fight to the line was just starting to come to the boil when Lossiemouth clipped the top of the fourth-last hurdle at speed, and as Paul Townend, State Man’s jockey, said afterwards, the fact that he avoided being brought down was no more or less than a huge stroke of good luck.

This was the race that was expected to decide whether Lossiemouth would take on Constitution Hill, the unbeaten odds-on favourite, in next month’s Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, or take up an apparently easier option in the Mares’ Hurdle the same afternoon.

Until her fall, Lossiemouth certainly appeared to be racing with far more enthusiasm than she had shown when finishing behind Constitution Hill in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton last month, and Mullins suggested afterwards that, all being well, the Champion Hurdle is a likely target.

“Our plan has always been to go for the Champion Hurdle,” Mullins said, “and unless they have a change of heart, I’m happy that she could still go for a Champion Hurdle, but Rich [Ricci, Lossiemouth’s owner] might feel different.”

Mullins was also optimistic that State Man, who was soundly beaten by another mare, Brighterdaysahead, in a Grade One at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting, had shown something much closer to his best form.

“I’m much happier that he was back to himself, but it’s always hard to know,” Mullins said. “I always say that we don’t know how good he is because he only does what he has to do.

Lossiemouth races before the fall at Leopardstown. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

“I let both jockeys do what they wanted, and they were setting it up to be a hell of a race. It’s just disappointing for Rich, for the public, for us all not to see what the final outcome was.”

State Man’s win completed a Grade One treble for Mullins, after somewhat contrasting successes for Ballyburn, in the two-mile-six novice chase, and Kopek Des Bordes in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle over two miles.

Ballyburn, an impressive novice hurdle winner at last year’s Cheltenham festival, got the job done at cramped odds and remains favourite, at around 2-1, for the three-mile Brown Advisory Novice Chase at Cheltenham next month. A five-length defeat of Croke Park after taking plenty of time to get past the runner-up was not the big step forward in form that many had hoped to see, however, and it would be no surprise to see him set off at a bigger price on the day.

Kopek Des Bordes, by contrast, could hardly have been more impressive in the novice hurdle, not least as a riderless opponent joined Kopek Des Bordes and carried him several lengths clear after the third-last.

That might have left the favourite vulnerable to a closer in the straight, but as Kopek Des Bordes turned for home, Townend was motionless in his saddle while his rivals were all hard at work – and still going further clear on the run to the final flight.

Kopek Des Bordes crossed the line 13 lengths in front without ever being asked a serious question, while his jumping was much improved from his hurdling debut at the Christmas meeting here, and he was cut from 6-1 to around 7-4 for the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham next month.

Mullins is no stranger to short-priced favourites in the festival’s opener, and also has the current second-favourite, Salvator Mundi, in his yard.

“I always like to have those ones, it’s a bit more pressure but you’ve a better chance, anyway,” Mullins said.

“Paul put him in a lovely position, then the loose horse came and it sent him [Kopek Des Bordes] mad. The loose horse then ran wide at the second-last and Paul had to yank him back, but he still put in a huge jump at it. It was a tremendous performance.”