'Everyone seems happy' says Willie Mullins as Lossiemouth bids to cement her festival claims in Unibet Hurdle

This Grade 2 has lost its lustre and recent results suggest it's lucky to hold Graded status at all. The last three winners, Call Me Lord, Song For Someone and Guard Your Dreams, were no better than handicappers and Champion Hurdle no-hopers.

And so comes a switch in the calendar to Trials day, rather than mid-December, and that might have brought an immediate boost to its reputation had Constitution Hill not scoped badly and been forced to miss this race en route to the big one.

His absence leaves a hole, but the fact that last year's winner Guard Your Dreams is the complete outsider tells you that the switch to January has brought an improvement in the standard of entries.

Triumph Hurdle winner Lossiemouth is the star. That might seem harsh on Love Envoi and Rubaud, who are rated higher, but they have been exposed as below the top class, whereas Lossiemouth has won five out of six and should be unbeaten as she was hampered behind Gala Marceau in her sole defeat at Leopardstown.

Lossiemouth avenged that reverse twice, including in the Triumph over course and distance, and we simply don't know how good she could be. Maybe we will find out now.

She isn't Willie Mullins' first runner in the race, though. Sempre Medici (2015) and Melon (2017) both came up short and if Lossiemouth isn't as good as she promises to be then she won't be capable of beating Love Envoi, who is rated 4lb superior on BHA figures.

Love Envoi won the Mares' Novices' Hurdle over course and distance in 2022 and the only horse to beat her at Cheltenham is dual Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle in last year's Mares' Hurdle. She is therefore a bigger danger to Lossiemouth than the rock-solid Rubaud.
Race analysis by Graeme Rodway

Lossiemouth returns

Lossiemouth is the 2-1 favourite for the Close Brothers Mares' Hurdle at Cheltenham but has not been seen since April, when she added a Punchestown Grade 1 juvenile hurdle to her Triumph success.

Willie Mullins trains her for Susannah Ricci, whose silks will be sported by Paul Townend in the saddle.

Mullins said: "She's in good order and everyone seems happy. She's had an easy first half of the season, but it hasn't been an easy job to find races for her. We thought this was a suitable place for her to start her season and we're happy to take our chance.

"Thankfully the BHA sorted the issue about the weight she is going to carry before the race rather than after it."

Envoi 'much sharper'

You can normally set your watch by Love Envoi, but her effort in the Fighting Fifth at Sandown last month was probably not her true running.

She was injured at Punchestown in April, having produced a career-best the previous month when second to Honeysuckle in the Mares' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Harry Fry: won this race last season with Metier

Harry Fry: Love Envoi's trainerCredit: Edward Whitaker( racingpost.com/photos)

Owned by one of Noel Fehily and Dave Crosse's syndicates, she is trained by Harry Fry, who said: "She was very rusty at Sandown last time and didn't travel, jump or get into stride with any of her usual fluency, but she was only just ready to get started and it looked like that.

"She's been much sharper since then and has definitely come forward in her work and schooling, so hopefully she'll replicate that on the track and take a big step forward from her reappearance. She'll need to, running in this over two miles as we know she's better over further, but we lost the ideal race for her at Lingfield last week."

What they say

Paul Nicholls, trainer of Rubaud
He loves running on a flat, right-handed track, so we've placed him quite well to do what he has done. This is his first step up into a race like this on what's going to be slow enough ground. Hopefully he'll run well but he’s got it to do.

Rubaud: set to take on Constitution Hill following victory in the Elite Hurdle

Rubaud: big test in this companyCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Nicky Henderson, trainer of First Street
He's in no-man's land and is too high for handicap hurdles, even the big ones, and he's not quite a Grade 1 horse, but still gives weight here to two genuine Grade 1 mares. That said, there's a lot of prize-money on offer, so he'll take his chance, as he did in the Christmas Hurdle in which he was third.

Willy Twiston-Davies, assistant to Nigel Twiston-Davies, trainer of Guard Your Dreams
It's lovely to have him back. He'll come on plenty for the run, but we've been pleased with what he's been doing at home – his schooling has been very good. All his old enthusiasm is there and the engine seems to be there as well, so we're looking forward to seeing him run.
Reporting by James Burn

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