Lossiemouth won the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle in March. She is now among the entries for the Boodles Champion Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival on Friday May 1. If she wins at Punchestown, she completes the Cheltenham-Punchestown Champion Hurdle double — a feat achieved by the sport's greatest hurdlers and one that cements a horse's place in jump racing history.
The Cheltenham Win
The Champion Hurdle at the 2026 Cheltenham Festival was described at the time as one of Lossiemouth's best performances. Trained by Willie Mullins, she won in a manner that confirmed she had reached the peak of her ability. The race is the deepest and most competitive two-mile hurdle in the calendar — winning it places a horse in the company of Istabraq, Sizing Europe and Hurricane Fly.
The Punchestown Context
Punchestown's Champion Hurdle is traditionally dominated by the Cheltenham winner. The Irish festival comes five weeks after Cheltenham — enough time to recover from the effort but not so much time that the fitness edge gained from a March campaign has dissipated. Horses that win Cheltenham and arrive at Punchestown fresh and healthy are consistent winning favourites at the Irish festival.
The concern with any Cheltenham winner defending at Punchestown is whether the hard race at Cheltenham has left a mark. Mullins's management of his horses suggests he would not run Lossiemouth at Punchestown if she was below full fitness — and a horse specifically entered by Mullins for the champion hurdle is a horse he believes can win.
Willie Mullins's Punchestown Record
Mullins dominates Punchestown. He is on the verge of his 20th Irish champion trainer title — a record that defines modern jump racing. His horses at Punchestown are consistently well-prepared, well-weighted and ridden with the confidence that comes from a stable at the top of its game. When Mullins enters a horse at Punchestown and the market makes it favourite, the probability of that horse winning is substantially higher than at almost any other meeting in the calendar.
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