"She has that mare's pedigree which gives her that bit of speed and the cheekpieces, I think, just made a huge difference. It made her concentrate that bit more and, you know, as horses get older they probably, like the rest of us, we start looking for ways out of doing hard work and this really invigorated her."
"To win the Champion Hurdle definitely outranks everything else she's done. But to come back here with four years in a row is an achievement in itself but then to win four years is, she's gone Triumph, Mares' twice and then this and it's been superb."
"When I saw her working in them the other morning and when she pulled up, Paul pulled up and, you know, I spoke to him and we both had the same feeling that this was the way to go. And then the race looked so open we thought, well, why not, let's go for it."
A grey mare trained by Willie Mullins won the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, maintaining her perfect record at the venue. Ridden by stable jockey Paul Townend, she was the 7-5 favourite after being chosen over the Mares' Hurdle, which she had won twice previously. She defeated Brighterdaysahead by six-and-a-half lengths, with The New Lion finishing third and Alexei fourth. Mullins attributed her success to cheekpieces that enhanced her concentration and reinvigorated her performance. The mare has now won four races at Cheltenham across different categories, including the Triumph Hurdle and Mares' Hurdle twice. Mullins noted this victory outranks all her previous achievements.
Read at Irish Independent
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]