John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival.<\/p>\n
Lossiemouth defends unbeaten Cheltenham record in Champion Hurdle<\/p>\n
It\u2019s ten years since Annie Power, trained by Willie Mullins for Susannah and Rich Ricci, won the Champion Hurdle, becoming the first mare to win the race for more than 20 years. But since Annie Power, other mares Epatante, Honeysuckle (twice) and, last year, Golden Ace, have all been successful. Golden Ace bids to defend her title this year, but it\u2019s two other mares who head the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings in this year\u2019s Champion Hurdle (16:00<\/a>), Lossiemouth<\/a> and Brighterdaysahead, the former representing Annie Power\u2019s connections.<\/p>\n Lossiemouth has only been beaten three times in her 16 completed starts and none of her defeats have come at Cheltenham where she has raced four times, including at the last three Festivals. She gained her first win there in the Triumph Hurdle and has since landed the odds in the last two editions of the David Nicholson Mares\u2019 Hurdle. In winning easily last year, she ran to a higher figure than Golden Ace did when winning a chaotic edition of the Champion Hurdle. Lossiemouth also won the International Hurdle on Festival Trials Day in 2024 in impressive fashion. <\/p>\n In the last 12 months, Lossiemouth has also taken on and beaten male rivals in the Aintree Hurdle, Morgiana Hurdle and December Hurdle, in the last-named going with her usual enthusiasm on the way to beating Brighterdaysahead by a length. However, the tables were turned when the two mares met again back at Leoopardstown last time in the Irish Champion Hurdle. Lossiemouth didn\u2019t travel with anything like her usual zest, Brighterdayshead also putting in the better round of jumping and winning by just over three lengths. But a back-to-form Lossiemouth should be capable of getting the better of Brighterdaysahead whose Cheltenham record reads less well, having lost her unbeaten status against Golden Ace in the Dawn Run Mares\u2019 Novices\u2019 Hurdle two years ago and then run most disappointingly when second favourite to Constitution Hill in last year\u2019s Champion Hurdle. <\/p>\n Lossiemouth, who wears cheekpieces for the first time, heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings from Brighterdaysahead and last year\u2019s Turners winner The New Lion who remains open to improvement, while Willie Mullins, bidding to win his sixth Champion Hurdle, has the \u2018Hot Trainer<\/a>\u2019 flag.<\/p>\n Old Park Star on a par with Altior going into Supreme<\/p>\n Nicky Henderson and Nico de Boinville have won the Supreme Novices\u2019 Hurdle (13:20<\/a>) three times in the last ten years with some of the best horses the pair have been associated with, namely Altior, Shishkin and Constitution Hill who beat Jonbon three years ago. Shishkin and Constitution Hill had the \u2018large P\u2019 symbol on their ratings going into the Supreme, indicating they were considered capable of much better, while Altior had the highest rating of the trio, coming from a wide-margin win at Kempton on Boxing Day which, in hindsight, could have been rated higher still. Altior went on to put up a high-class effort in the Supreme, beating the favourite Min by seven lengths, with his stablemate, the future dual Champion Hurdle winner Buveur d\u2019Air, back in third.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s renewal of the Supreme looks full of potential too, with \u2018large P\u2019 horses Mighty Park and El Cairos representing Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott respectively, while Joseph O\u2019Brien\u2019s Talk The Talk brings the best form from Ireland and should probably be unbeaten over hurdles.<\/p>\n However, \u2018Hot Trainer\u2019 Henderson and De Boinville look the trainer-jockey partnership to beat again with Old Park Star<\/a> whose Timeform rating of 155p is the highest for a Supreme contender since Altior, who was rated the same going into the race. Old Park Star was beaten in all three of his bumpers when trained by Paul Nicholls last season but has taken brilliantly to hurdles this term, winning at Kempton, Cheltenham and Haydock. He was impressive when winning by a dozen lengths at Cheltenham in December and even more so in the Rossington Main Novices\u2019 Hurdle the following month, jumping accurately in front and forging clear to win by 18 lengths, earning the \u2018Horse In Focus<\/a>\u2019 flag. Having all the qualities of a Supreme winner and 7 lb clear in the Timeform ratings, Old Park Star can keep his unbeaten record over hurdles with further improvement to come.<\/p>\n Lulamba the pick in exciting Arkle clash<\/p>\n Henderson and De Boinville can continue a flying start to the Festival with Lulamba<\/a> who is set for a fascinating clash with Willie Mullins\u2019 Kopek des Bordes, the winner of last year\u2019s Supreme, in the Arkle (14:00<\/a>). The two stables have dominated the race since 2012, winning 11 of the 14 renewals between them. Henderson added to his record number of Arkle wins last year when Jango Baie provided him with an eighth win, while Mullins was denied a seventh win in the race with the defeat of odds-on favourite Majborough.<\/p>\n Majborough was bidding to become the first five-year-old to win the Arkle since Voy Por Ustedes in 2006 when five-year-olds were still entitled to a weight allowance, which has since been scrapped. Lulamba faces the same challenge this year, but last year\u2019s Triumph Hurdle runner-up has a bit more chasing experience under his belt, including outside of novice company. He was impressive when following up a debut success over fences at Exeter in the Henry VIII Novices\u2019 Chase at Sandown \u2013 where he did enjoy a weight allowance \u2013 and then followed in the footsteps of a couple of his stable\u2019s best Arkle winners, Sprinter Sacre and Altior, by winning the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury. Helped by a well-run race, Lulamba ultimately won readily by six and a half lengths from Saint Segal who runs in Wednesday\u2019s Queen Mother Champion Chase.<\/p>\n Lulamba, who earned the \u2018Horse In Focus\u2019 flag at Newbury, is 10 lb clear of Kopek des Bordes in the Timeform ratings, though the latter, with a \u2018large P\u2019 on his rating and very smart form to his name over hurdles, has scope for plenty of improvement. However, he hasn\u2019t been out since making a successful chasing debut \u2013 coincidentally on the same day as Lulamba \u2013 at Navan in November. Typically travelling strongly, Kopek des Bordes guessed at some of his fences but was largely more assured in his jumping than he often was over hurdles. Having had surgery to remove a bone chip afterwards, Kopek des Bordes missed an intended return in the Irish Arkle to be given more time for this assignment. Lulamba can put his relative experience to good use and get the better of Kopek des Bordes, while the latter\u2019s stablemate Kargese, winner of last year\u2019s County Hurdle, is in receipt of an allowance as a mare and looks best of the rest in a race to look forward to. <\/p>\n Safer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on the first day of the Cheltenham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-338906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}