A rematch with the mighty Constitution Hill looms large for State Man following a comfortable defence of his Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle crown at Leopardstown.
Since falling on his first start for Willie Mullins at this track in December 2021, State Man has been the dominant force in the division in Ireland, winning nine of his next 10 outings.
His only defeat during that period came at the hands of Nicky Henderson’s Constitution Hill, who proved nine lengths too strong in the Champion Hurdle at last season’s Cheltenham Festival.
State Man and Paul Townend win the Irish Champion Hurdle for Willie Mullins
And while State Man clearly has his work cut out to turn the tables in the Cotswolds next month, he confirmed his status as the reigning champion’s biggest threat with an eighth Grade One victory under Paul Townend.
Having been unable to reel in his stablemate in the Matheson Hurdle in December, Impaire Et Passe this time set out to make all the running under Daryl Jacob, with State Man (2-5 favourite) his nearest pursuer.
State Man took over travelling strongly before the home turn and was always doing enough in the straight to keep a resurgent Bob Olinger at bay, with five and a half lengths separating the pair at the line.
The success made it a clean sweep of all eight Grade One races over the two days at Leopardstown for Mullins.
The State Man team celebrate Irish Champion Hurdle victory
On his Champion Hurdle bid, Mullins said: “We have our chance, State Man is out and racing and is going to go there in tip-top order. It’s all to play for.
“Everything is open. They (connections of Constitution Hill) are not going to be too worried and they’ll be confident enough they have enough in the locker to beat us no matter what we do.
“I doubt you’d be able to lock up Constitution Hill, as soon as he got one bit of daylight he’d be gone, and that wouldn’t be fair anyhow.
“All’s fair in love and war and you go and run. I don’t think there’ll be too many runners in it and a change of tactics might make all the difference.”
Mullins was impressed with State Man’s performance, but admitted the change of tactics had not worked out for Impaire Et Passe.
He added: “State Man is a lovely racehorse, himself and Galopin Des Champs, Fact To File and El Fabiolo have a lovely temperament, which is half the battle. When they’ve a good temperament, it means the trainer can train them the way they want to and the jockey can ride them the way he wants to. It makes life a lot easier for the people involved.
“I thought Christmas was his best performance up to today. Today’s race was different as we tried something different with Impaire Et Passe and he obviously didn’t enjoy being out in front. I think he’d take a lead and probably needs another half-mile and fences down the road.
“It was an experiment to go down the Champion Hurdle route with him this year, but it doesn’t look like it’s working. That (Aintree Hurdle) could be on the cards, but the Champion Hurdle is there and there’s only two horses in front of him for me and any one of those could get injured or run bad on the day and if you’re not in you can’t win it.”