Insiders worry about how to grow racing as costs rise but JP McManus continues to find winners in his 50th year in the sport
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o sooner had Lossiemouth lifted the roof off Cheltenham with a staggeringly dominant Champion Hurdle victory than the skies around Prestbury Park also began to brighten too. The buildup to the festival had been dominated by talk of civil war, of feuding and internecine conflict. But this was a reminder of the sport’s simple pleasures. Horse and jockey. Fence and turf. Drama and thrills for the ages.
This was a day that jump racing needed. The opening day attendance of 57,242 was the highest for three years. It made Cheltenham feel like a place to be while not bursting at the seams, a balancing act it has not always managed. Most important of all, the racing was competitive and the stars came out to play.
And there was no bigger star on day one than Lossiemouth. Some had suggested that she had missed her moment, having raced in the easier mares’ hurdle in 2024 and 2025. But on the biggest stage, how she delivered – and then some – as she tracked Brighterdaysahead before bounding clear to win by six and a half lengths.
