One of the big racing festivals in Ireland took place over the weekend with the Dublin Racing Festival over two days at Leopardstown.

The eagerly awaited Irish Champion Hurdle featured two blockbusters from the Willie Mullins stable. Lossiemouth and State Man were set to battle it out for major honours on Sunday afternoon.

Come 3.20pm, the excitement was intense with the raising of the starters flag, the pair quickly went into the lead and opened up a big gap between the rest of the field.

It was looking like the grey Lossiemouth and State Man would have the race between them when disaster struck when Lossiemouth made an uncharacteristic error and fell at the sixth flight, almost bringing down State Man.

For the connections of State Man, this left the Champion Hurdle winner to stroll home for his third successive Irish Champion Hurdle in his own time and win comfortably by 6 ½ lengths from Daddy Long Legs.

On Saturday, Galopin Des Champs was aiming for his third Irish Gold Cup success. A heaving Leopardstown winners’ enclosure rang out to a host of Ole Ole Ole after another outstanding performance from Galopin Des Champs.

The nine-year-old even prompted trainer Willie Mullins to admit he is “probably” the best horse he has ever trained after capturing the Irish Gold Cup for the third consecutive time.

"It has to be an awesome performance," Mullins said as he digested his 14th Irish Gold Cup success. "His natural galloping pace just enables him to put horses under pressure, and there is no end to him over three miles.

"I don't know if people realise how long it takes to make a horse like this, a three-mile chaser, it is the pinnacle of our game.”

In other racing news this week, a huge blow for Ben Pauling & Harry Redknapp as leading Cheltenham Festival contender The Jukebox Man is ruled out of the season with an injury.

The Jukebox Man was a leading contender for the Brown Advisory Novices Chase. Pauling said in a statement: “The Jukebox Man has sustained an injury during his routine exercise that will sadly rule him out for the rest of the season.

“At this early stage, the feedback from our veterinary team and the specialists is positive that we can look forward to seeing him return in the autumn.”

I Am Maximus, Gerri Colombe and L’Homme Press feature in a star studded Grand National list of entries, with the Irish challenge decreasing.

Last year’s winner I Am Maximus heads the entries for this year’s Randox Grand National.

Ireland has just 48 entries in the classic race with Gordon Elliott, who has won the Grand National three times, providing 16 entries this year.

I Am Maximus is one of ten entries for champion trainer Willie Mullins. Nicky Henderson has yet to win the Grand National with the Lambourne trainer entering four this year, in a bid to break his duck.

Oisin Murphy returned back to the UK with a double at Kempton Park on the all-weather surface. Qual De Bethune trained by Andrew Balding was his first winner of the evening, quickly followed by Midnight’s Dream, trained by Roger Varian.

By Peter Moore