THE MAN OF STEEL treble
State powers home like a Champion and sparks superb Mullins/townend Grade 1
STATE MAN galloped through the mud to Unibet Champion Hurdle glory as Cheltenham king Willie Mullins made three the magic number.
Ireland’s champion trainer began the 2004 National Hunt Festival needing six winners to reach a barely credible century on jump racing’s most hallowed stage.
And Mullins ended Tuesday halfway there as State Man spearheaded a treble completed by Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth.
With title-holder – and hot ante-post favourite –
Constitution Hill ruled out of defending his crown eight days earlier, State Man went off the 2-5 favourite to complete a ninth victory at the highest level.
Paul Townend was cocksure on the ninelength runner-up of
2023, producing his mount to lead at the final flight – and State
Man did the rest to beat
Irish Point by a length and a quarter, with Constitution Hill’s stablemate Luccia two and a quarter lengths away in third.
“There’s no ‘wow’ factor with
State Man – he does what it says on the tin,” said Mullins.
“It’s hard to be ‘wow’ in that ground – it’s as heavy as I’ve ever seen it – but he’s a good, solid horse and he just gives his running every time.
“When Constitution Hill came out, that expectation grew, but you’ve got to turn up to win a Champion Hurdle. We turned up.” The win was Mullins’ fifth in the Champion Hurdle, but Townend, capturing the race for the first time, said: “To put my name on that list is special. It was the one that was kind of missing here. In my younger days, I had a close association with [Mullins’ 2011 and 2013 Champion Hurdler] Hurricane Fly, so it was a race that meant a lot to me.
“He deserves a big day like this. He’s a very simple horse to ride.”
The last comment had not applied to Gaelic Warrior when the dual hot-headed six-year-old repeatedly ducked out to his right before capsizing at the final fence of a match with stablemate Fact To File at the Dublin Racing Festival last month.
But, fitted with a becalming hood, Gaelic Warrior and
Townend erased the memory of two Cheltenham Festival defeats with a silk-smooth eight-and-ahalf-length win in the My Pension Expert Arkle Challenge Trophy.
“I thought he was going to boil over again,” said Mullins, “but once he got away from the crowd, he became a lot more settled.
“It made him so much easier to ride in the hood.”
Gaelic Warrior’s owner, Rich Ricci (left), said: “He’s a bit of a flawed genius, a bit mad, He’s maybe the most naturally talented we’ve had – but he’s quirky.”
Ricci’s colours were also carried to success by Lossiemouth, who swerved the Champion Hurdle in favour of the two-and-a-half-mile Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle, in which she justified 8-13 favouritism by an effortless three lengths.
Last year’s Triumph Hurdle heroine Lossiemouth earned a 7-2 quote for the 2025 Champion Hurdle – State Man is listed at 4-1, with Constitution Hill the 6-4 favourite – and Mullins said: “She’s a Champion Hurdle mare.
“We made the right decision – end of story – because she didn’t get a ‘grueller’ in the Champion Hurdle. That isn’t what you should do with them.”