Mullins States case for his Man as Constitution Hill and Golden Ace threaten Boodles Champion Hurdle three-in-a-row bid

“Bring them on!” is the defiant message from Patrick Mullins after the declarations for Friday’s blockbuster BOODLES CHAMPION HURDLE on the penultimate day of the sun-kissed Punchestown Festival were made this morning.

Huge crowds are anticipated at Ireland’s home of jumps racing to watch the clash between State Man and Constitution Hill at the season-ending carnival, with Jeremy Scott doubling the British raiding party by saddling Cheltenham’s Champion Hurdle victor, Golden Ace.
The mare capitalised as State Man took a crunching fall at the last when seemingly on the cusp of making it back-to-back triumphs in the championship race for two-mile hurdlers.

That was the first time the Marie Donnelly-owned jumper had lined up alongside Constitution Hill but the 2023 Cheltenham Champion Hurdle victor, trained by Punchestown regular Nicky Henderson, came a cropper even earlier four from home.

Michael Buckley’s star also fell in the Aintree Hurdle but has satisfied the team at Seven Barrows sufficiently after a strong piece of work and schooling over fences to make his Punchestown bow. The Mullins camp have long considered their chief representative to have been unfairly under-appreciated, despite being an 11-time Grade 1 winner and enjoyed success twice at Cheltenham.

Indeed, the eight-year-old son of Doctor Dino is attempting a third straight triumph in the Boodles Champion Hurdle and a fourth consecutive victory at the Punchestown Festival, as he registered a facile success in the Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle on this same day in 2022.

Should he be victorious, State Man would be emulating another Mullins-trained legend, Hurricane Fly, who completed the three-in-a-row in 2012 and went on to make it four 12 months later.

In all, State Man has won five times at the track, having scored in the Morgiana Hurdle twice before his three-in-a-row bid was scuppered by Brighterdaysahead last November, his first and only reverse at the venue.
However, Willie Mullins’ son and assistant is optimistic about what will unfold in two days’ time, reporting State Man to have shown no ill effects whatsoever from his shuddering fall.

“State Man was unlucky and lucky at Cheltenham,” says Patrick Mullins. “It was an awful fall. It was great that he got up. He seemed a 100% afterwards. It doesn’t seem to have knocked his confidence at all so it’s going to be fascinating to see the two English horses come over and take him on, on home soil.
“I think he was well in the process of redeeming his reputation at Cheltenham and I would be expecting him to redeem it even further at Punchestown so bring it on!”
Six runners have been declared with County Hurdle winner Kargese also representing the Mullins team and owner Kenny Alexander, who won the race with Honeysuckle in 2021 and 2022.

Break My Soul and Bottler’secret give trainers Ian Donoghue and Aidan Melia a tilt at some major prize money in the €300,000 feature, with €6,000 guaranteed to the sixth-place finisher.
Final Demand is part of a team of three from Closutton looking to follow State Man as a winner of the day’s other Grade 1, the preceding ALANNA HOMES CHAMPION NOVICE HURDLE.

The Yellow Clay, who finished just ahead when the strapping gelding was third to The New Lion in the Turners Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham, returns for another battle and the Bective Stud-owned novice prepped by Gordon Elliott is sure to be difficult to overhaul.
A new strategy will be deployed in an attempt to bring about a different result for the impressive Dublin Racing Festival winner.
“Final Demand came off third best in a fantastic three-way tussle at Cheltenham but I think he would have learned a lot there and we will stick with the intermediate trip for Punchestown and take on The Yellow Clay again,” says Mullins Jnr.

“I think maybe we will change tactics slightly and hopefully that will bring about a different result.”
The JP McManus-owned Lovely Hurling is thrown in at the deep end by Colm Murphy, having run only once since winning a Wexford bumper 11 months ago, albeit while scoring impressively on in a Naas maiden hurdle in February.

Harry Derham, who got on the board for the first time at the festival with Ascending Lark yesterday, has declared Queensbury Boy, who will be ridden by his popular owner David Maxwell, while Fergal O’Brien’s Tripoli Flyer will have Johnny Burke in the plate as he bids to provide the Gloucestershire-based Tipperary native with his first triumph at the meeting.