Lossiemouth glides to impressive Champion Hurdle victory on first day of Cheltenham Fesitval

The 7-5 favourite after opting for this race over the Mares' Hurdle, a contest she has won twice, she was one of three Willie Mullins-trained runners and the choice of stable jockey Paul Townend.

The grey mare's Cheltenham record was flawless going into Tuesday's feature race and remained so afterwards, never looking in any sort of trouble ahead of a six-and-a-half-length defeat of Brighterdaysahead as The New Lion came home in third.

Read More: Rachael Blackmore appointed Head of Ladies Day as Cheltenham targets more female racegoers

Read More: Harry Cobden to become JP McManus’ number one rider in Britain and Ireland

Alexei ran a big race in fourth, just ahead of gallant defending champion Golden Ace.

Lossiemouth's trainer Willie Mullins said: "She's a star mare, to come back four years in a row let alone win, that is incredible.

"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.

"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.

"Well, you know, we were all anxious until the third-last and then I saw her hitting the third-last spot on and I looked back at JP's (McManus) colours (The New Lion) and I thought, right, he's starting to come under pressure and I thought when he was coming under pressure he was the one I was worried about.

"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.

"Just 12 months ago State Man would have left her for dead. When State Man fell last year, he might have brought her down!"

Winning owner Rich Ricci told ITV: “She loves this place, long may it last. The reception she got was great, it is great for the sport.

"I'd love to win the Gold Cup, hopefully we can do the double on Friday.

“All credit goes to Willie Mullins - ten days ago, he said he wanted to try her with cheekpieces, and it worked.”