RACING:A NEW and perhaps even better Hurricane Fly returned to action with a winning BHP Irish Champion Hurdle performance at Leopardstown yesterday that can only be described as scintillating.
Nine months after the final race of an unbeaten 2010-2011 campaign that saw him land hurdling’s top crown at Cheltenham, Ireland’s horse of the year made such an impression in his comeback that most bookmakers now rate him odds-on to retain his title in six weeks’ time.
It’s hard to blame them either because Hurricane Fly sailed through what had seemed to be a serious test with an aplomb that made light of the desperate ground conditions and which surprised even those closest to him.
A fretful autumn and winter, when Hurricane Fly persistently failed to impress Willie Mullins, meant a reappearance delayed to yesterday and those jitters weren’t eased for the champion trainer by the horse’s pre-race behaviour.
“Normally he’s really buzzy and can take two people to lead him around. But I was worried today when I saw he was going around on a lead rein like a lamb,” Mullins said.
“I had a couple of runners earlier that didn’t go on the ground and sometimes you can get days like that when they all run bad.”
Instead what he got was the sight of Hurricane Fly dropping the bit in the early stages to such an extent that Ruby Walsh was worried there might be little there when he asked him to go by his stable companion Thousand Stars and Oscars Well.
The most successful team in Irish jump racing stressed themselves needlessly. Hurricane Fly sailed up to join his rivals on the turn-in and if anything can ever saunter through heavy going it was him yesterday.
“Never off the bridle,” Walsh reported.
“He’s an incredible horse and he was as good there as he was at Punchestown.”
Mullins had the satisfied air of a man whose judgment has been vindicated but also one anticipating what might yet be in store for his stable star.
“Maybe he’s maturing and you would hope he could even improve on that,” he said.
“I was very worried in the autumn so I’m delighted we waited and didn’t force him. I’d love to know what Noel O’Brien (handicapper) makes of it.”
O’Brien’s first reaction was to acknowledge the visual impression Hurricane Fly made yesterday but to leave his official handicap mark unchanged at 173.
That’s only 1lb behind the highest mark Istabraq achieved during his legendary career and while the Mullins team will be concentrating on getting Hurricane Fly to Cheltenham in peak shape, they will do so against a theoretical backdrop of where the current champ might rank amongst the very best hurdlers ever.
“I was hoping he’d win today but he completely surprised me. It must be as good a performance as he’s ever produced,” Mullins said.
Whatever about the theoretical handicapping contest, those taking on Hurricane Fly on at Cheltenham look set to face mission-impossible.
