State Man leads home Mullins 1-2-3 in Matheson Hurdle

State Man continued his rise up the hurdling ranks when powering clear on the run-in to beat two stable companions in the Grade 1 Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Unbeaten over hurdles since falling at this meeting last year, the five-year-old went on to win the County Hurdle at Cheltenham, before stepping up to Grade 1 company to win his next two starts.

Following a dominant display in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown last time, he was arguably even better this afternoon, as he showed a real turn of foot to dispose of his rivals when briefly challenged in the home straight. Vauban last years leading juvenile, shaped very encouragingly in second on his seasonal reappearance. Almost certain to improve for the run, Vauban challenged up the inner over a furlong out and kept on in determined fashion even after State Man had gone clear. Sharjah who was attempting to win the race for the fifth time, wasn't good enough on the day but emerged from the race with his reputation fully intact.

Winning jockey Paul Townend said: "We expected a better performance than the last day and he gave us that. He needed to build on Punchestown and I think he can even build on today."

“He just keeps improving and I think there is more improvement again after today,” said Mullins.

“We were discussing where he goes next and the Dublin Racing festival looks like the plan now.

“Hopefully we don't get any setbacks, the horses have been coming out of Leopardstown well over the last few days, and we'll look forward to that and then maybe going over to Cheltenham in March.

“I think Paul was very happy where he was all the time.

“It's repaid all the faith shown. When you go back to Al Boum Photo running out in Punchestown Joe and Marie rang me up five minutes after the race and said 'whatever happened, happened' and it would make no difference so it's loyalty paying off.”

When asked if he thought he could give Constitution Hill a race he said:-

“We all have to turn up and we'll hope for the best. We're improving all the time.”

Regarding Vauban, Mullins added: “It was a cracker of a run from a horse having his first run back. He's only a four-year-old and people tend to forget that.

“I was very pleased with that. He'll probably have another run and then we'll see if he's good enough to go to Cheltenham. On today's run I'm very happy that he's progressed nicely and is coming along nicely.

“He travelled very sweet, all the rest of the horses had runs. For his first run in championship company against older horses I thought it was excellent.

“He's way ahead of where I thought he was.”

“Sharjah threw his chance away when he made the mistake at the second hurdle.

“I thought anything could happen with Sharjah as he loves this track but the mistake put him out of the race and Patrick said he just wasn't the same after that.

“You can't do that in championship racing and get away with it.”

Paddy Powers cut State Man to 4/1(from 5/1) for Champion Hurdle and 4/6f(from 10/11f) in their market without Constitution Hill.