Lossiemouth (11-8 favourite) stormed to victory in the JCB Triumph Hurdle on the final day of the 2023 Cheltenham Festival.
Willie Mullins had five of the seven winners on the final day of last year's Festival and he started off this time with a winner in the Grade One opener. The County Carlow handler saddled seven of the 15 runners in the juvenile contest but it was Lossiemouth who came out on top ahead of stable-mates Gala Marceau (100-30), Zenta (12-1) and Gust Of Wind (22-1) to bring up a 1-2-3-4 for the Irish champion trainer on St Patrick's Day. Under Paul Townend, Lossiemouth powered through on the turn for home and took it up coming to the final flight. The grey mare was slick over the hurdle and powered up the hill to score by two-and-a-quarter lengths, with a neck back to Zenta.
It was the Closutton trainer's third win in the race in four years, having also scored with Burning Victory in 2020 and Vauban last year. It was also a fifth winner of the week at the Festival and Mullins said: "She travelled into the race at maybe the five-furlong marker and rather than fighting her Paul just let her gallop and held onto her as much as he could for a long as he could. He thought she was actually idling come up the straight and thinks there is a little bit more in the tank - she looks a star mare. But for the traffic problems in Leopardstown she'd be unbeaten for us. I'm very happy with how they all ran, bar Blood Destiny (finished ninth) who was disappointing. I don't know what happened to him, but all the rest ran their race. It's a nice start to the day."
