Eight runners are set to go to post for a potentially top class renewal of the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown on Saturday. Willie Mullins has won nine of the previous ten runnings of the contest and is set to saddle more than half the field in this 2024 edition.
The team captain as he almost always is over hurdles is State Man. The two-time defending champion of this race went unbeaten last season, with the absence of Constitution Hill enabling him to win his first Champion Hurdle crown in March. Paul Townend remains loyal to the ten-time Grade 1 winner.
However, he is only third favourite for the Cheltenham Festival championship race in 2025 behind Constitution Hill and stablemate Lossiemouth. The five-year-old mare is also set to make her reappearance here as Mullins pits his big guns against one another from an early stage. She also won every race she contested in 2023/24 and will be partnered by Patrick Mullins.
Despite that stellar Closutton pair going to post, Mullins may not have it all his own way, with old rival Gordon Elliott set to saddle Brighterdaysahead against them. A mare like Lossiemouth, she has met with defeat just once in her career so far, making a winning reappearance at Down Royal earlier this month having cruised to Grade 1 success at Aintree as a novice last term.
Mullins’ other trio include Grade 1 winner Sir Gerhard, set to be partnered by Danny Mullins, the up-and-coming Daddy Long Legs (Michael O’Sullivan) and the veteran Winter Fog (Sean O’Keeffe). The latter pair have both won in Graded company in the past year.
Only outsiders Smooth Tom and No Looking Back represent any other yard, with Andrew Slattery and Oliver McKiernan giving their charges a taste of the top level. They complete the eight-strong line-up.
Morgiana Hurdle 2024 Runners
| Number | Horse | Trainer | Jockey |
| 1 | Daddy Long Legs | Willie Mullins | Michael O’Sullivan |
| 2 | No Looking Back | Oliver McKiernan | Darragh O’Keeffe |
| 3 | Sir Gerhard | Willie Mullins | Danny Mullins |
| 4 | Smooth Tom | Andrew Slattery | Cian Quirke |
| 5 | State Man | Willie Mullins | Paul Townend |
| 6 | Winter Fog | Willie Mullins | Sean O’Keeffe |
| 7 | Brighterdaysahead | Gordon Elliott | Jack Kennedy |
| 8 | Lossiemouth | Willie Mullins | Patrick Mullins |