Willie Mullins has described his historic achievement of having the first three home in the Stan James Champion Hurdle as his greatest ever training achievement. The dominant nine-time champion Irish trainer has become used to swatting aside the opposition in his homeland and bruising the home defence with his increasingly potent Festival raids. But the feat of the Ruby Walsh-ridden 4-5 favourite Faugheen leading home stablemates Arctic Fire and dual champion Hurricane Fly will take some surpassing even for a man who has won a Grand National. The nearest any other trainer has come to matching what this modern-day racing William the Conqueror achieved was Irish colleague Aidan O’Brien, who sent out Istabraq and Theatreworld to be first and second in both the 1998 and 1999 Champion Hurdles. A jubilant Walsh enters the winners enclosure on board the Champions Hurdle winner Faugheen . It is the most outstanding feat since Michael Dickinson trained the first five in the 1983 Gold Cup. Mullins said: ‘A one-two-three is a dream. On paper it is my best training feat, certainly. To get three horses in that condition is good for anyone but then to get the luck in running is vital.’ And it is even more remarkable given what else Mullins managed on the first day of the Festival with three other winners — Douvan (2-1 favourite) beating stablemate Shaneshill in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Un De Sceaux (4-6) in the Arkle Challenge Trophy and Paul Townend-ridden Glens Melody (6-1) in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle. Punters jumping on the Mullins bandwagon cost the bookmaking industry an estimated £10million as they linked them in accumulator bets. But it could have been worse. Walsh-ridden Annie Power, 1-2 favourite and the horse Mullins had regarded as his certainty of the day, was clear at the last in the Mares’ Hurdle when taking a crashing fall. Walsh celebrates on Faugheen after the seven-yeatr-old won the Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy . Mullins said: ‘Annie Power got a horrible fall and she will have a sore neck and shoulder in the morning but she will be OK. It’s rare to have four runners on a day like this, let alone four winners. I keep saying to myself, “enjoy it while it lasts”. ‘You couldn’t write a script like that, but I just knew that all the horses were doing everything right. It was going scarily well and I thought coming here it was either going to be a great success or a blow-out.’ The latter does not happen very often for Mullins. The man who has now trained 37 Festival winners and has been top trainer at the meeting for three of the last four years might as well pop the trophy in his suitcase for the flight home. Faugheen was imperious as he led home a Willie Mullins-trained one-two-three at the Cheltenham Festival . Douvan, like Faugheen owned by former Barclays Investment banker Rich Ricci, had been decribed as one of the best Mullins had brought to the Festival. He jumped with efficiency to set the ball rolling with a four and a half length win in the Supreme. Front-running Un De Sceaux proved fears about his headstrong nature were unfounded with a performance of total control in the Arkle Chase. And there was Faugheen, the horse who has developed from an ugly duckling into a fully-fledged hurdling swan unbeaten in nine races. After he had made the running before sprinting clear off the home turn, Mullins revealed Walsh had formulated the battle plan months ago, even though he had only confirmed he would ride the seven-year-old on Saturday. Walsh glides over the fence on his way to winning the Champions Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival 2015 . Mullins said: ‘I didn’t think he would win that impressively. I was wondering like punters, the media and the bookmakers, could he take on the Grade One horses and beat them because we picked races for him that did not have top Grade One horses in. It paid off and he learned his trade. Ruby rode him with huge confidence and he showed that he was the good horse Ruby and everybody else thought he was.’ His next run is likely to be at the Punchestown Festival and he is 6-4 to win next year’s Champion Hurdle. But he still has somewhere to go to usurp dual champion Hurricane Fly in Mullins’ affections. ‘He is a very good horse and probably over hurdles the second best I’ve trained.’ Some second best. Walsh made his intentions clear as he took Faugheen to the head of the line before the tapes went up .
Faugheen dictated the tempo and romped home the 4/5 winner . Arctic Fire came second in the race with Hurricane Fly in third . Win gave Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins a treble with just four races down . Mullins described the 1-2-3 as his greatest ever training achievement .