State Man battles to win gruelling Champion Hurdle for Willie Mullins

State Man justified his short odds as he claimed victory in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend, State Man was sent off the 2-5 favourite in the absence of last year’s winner Constitution Hill, who had soundly beaten the Irish challenger 12 months ago.

State Man travelled beautifully throughout and though Irish Point kept him honest all the way to the line, Mullins’ charge was ultimately a convincing length-and-a-quarter winner. Luccia ran a fine race in third for Constitution Hill’s trainer, Nicky Henderson.

Mullins said: “I was amazed with the way Paul rode him, I thought he’d be much more forward, I didn’t dream that he’d only be fifth or sixth jumping the fourth-last. But he just rode him with supreme confidence.

“I thought he’d make more use of his stamina, but Paul seemed to ride him for speed today and he clearly felt there was enough in the ground to take it out of the horses in front of him. But when jockeys are riding with confidence, they can do things like that and I feel that’s the way he’s been riding all season. He’s a fantastic jockey.”

Asked if his charge is truly suited by Cheltenham and whether Constitution Hill would have been a big challenger, Mullins added: “He’s probably a better horse around Leopardstown, but he’s a Champion Hurdle winner. You’ve got to turn up to win a Champion Hurdle – we turned up.”

Constitution Hill’s setback aside, there is no doubt Henderson’s string has not been firing on all cylinders ahead of the Festival and the fact both Supreme Novices’ Hurdle contender Jeriko Du Reponet and Champion Hurdle hope Iberico Lordwere pulled up gave the trainer further food for thought.

“Some of these horses probably aren’t running how they ought to, in which case [Constitution Hill] is probably safer where he is,” he said. “Everything you do at home tells you they’re all perfectly right, otherwise to be honest with you they wouldn’t be here. We’ll just have to play it quietly and take them as individuals. [The tests] say they’re all OK, but this ground has gone against quite a few of them, so we’ll have to regroup. I can think of two or three that won’t want to be running on that ground, but I need to talk to the owners first.”