'I trust her so much, she's dynamite' - Lossiemouth delivers another emphatic Champion Hurdle success

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The only certainty at the Punchestown festival is uncertainty but Lossiemouth is as reliable as they come and she showed just why she is her owner’s “favourite horse of all time” with a typically emphatic victory in the Boodles Champion Hurdle in front of a colossal crowd of 43,572, up from 42,138 last year.

Rich Ricci made that huge statement before Friday's showpiece and she didn’t let him down. She never does.

With no Constitution Hill, Brighterdaysahead, State Man or The New Lion in opposition, it was no surprise to see her sent off a very warm order at 2-7 but even those who dabble in such skimpy odds never had an anxious moment as she coasted up the home straight with a real swagger, with Paul Townend just nudging her out after the last to beat the 2025 Champion Hurdle winner Golden Ace by five lengths.

“We’ll have to go a long way to find another one like her, won’t we?” said Townend. “She’s so simple now and you can put her wherever you want in a race. You can line her up wherever you want and do whatever is presented to you.

“She locked on leaving the back straight and I was trying to keep it as simple as I could. You can often end up complicating it more than you have to.

“I trust her so much. She has so much ability that you just don’t want to be part of a hard-luck story. Once I grabbed a hold of her, she was alive underneath me. She was dynamite.”

Paul Townend celebrates Lossiemouth's Champion Hurdle win at Punchestown Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

It was the latest chapter of Townend’s fairytale season in which he has won the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Gold Cup at both Cheltenham and Punchestown. Oh, and the Grand National, too. We'd better not forget that one.

The man himself has never been one to indulge himself in all the praise coming his way, so it was no surprise to hear him deflect all of it onto the rest of the team in the Closutton camp.

“It’s been a brilliant season,” Townend said. “What can I say? I’m in the right camp to be on these great horses. It’s a massive team effort and I just get to steer them around at the races.”

Ricci was overcome with emotion afterwards. Lossiemouth does things to him that no other horse has done in the past. She holds a special place in his heart and the maddest thing of all is that she is only seven. How is that even possible? She has won at four Cheltenham Festivals already, for goodness’ sake. Has her birth cert been tampered with?

“It’s a dream season, you dream of these things, but to be living in it, it’s so nervous,” said Ricci. “We’ve had a lot of great horses who haven’t gone on over time, but this one just keeps on doing it. She’s incredible. She’s just a lovely, lovely mare and the longevity of her is great.”

Lossiemouth's owner Rich Ricci is centre of attention at PunchestownCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Lossiemouth is so reliable that Ricci even managed to sneak a look at the big screen. He’s a notoriously nervous owner and doesn’t dare watch his horses run live, but he changed the habit of a lifetime for this glorious triumph.

“When I heard that she was coming, I turned around and looked at the screen,” Ricci admitted. “I just said ‘Wow, isn’t that great’. It was so lovely.”

This was one of those rare days when scripts were stuck to at Punchestown. The three ‘good things’ all won as Dinoblue and King Rasko Grey did the business, before Lossiemouth completed the final leg of the short-priced treble. Did you ever doubt her?

Lossiemouth remains 5-2 favourite with Paddy Power to win back-to-back Champion Hurdles at next year’s Cheltenham Festival. It is going to take something special for her to surrender her crown, that’s for sure.

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Punchestown as it happened: Lossiemouth 'right up there with Faugheen and Annie Power' says Rich Ricci after star mare wins 11th Grade 1

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