[BYLINE1]BRIAN O'CONNOR
[/BYLINE1][BYLINE2]Racing correspondent,
at Cheltenham
[/BYLINE2]
The weight of expectation on Willie Mullins might be colossal but Ireland's leading trainer stepped up spectacularly on Day One of the 2013 Cheltenham festival, scattering festival records with an élan to match what Hurricane Fly showed in a remarkable Stan James Champion Hurdle victory yesterday.
Hurricane Fly’s regaining of the Champion Hurdle crown was the centrepiece of a stunning 26/1 hat-trick for Mullins and jockey Ruby Walsh that also saw Quevega complete five-in-a-row festival wins, and Champagne Fever kick the whole thing off in the Supreme Novices Hurdle.
The hat-trick sent Mullins speeding past Arkle’s legendary trainer Tom Dreaper as Ireland’s most successful ever trainer at the Cheltenham festival with 27 wins.
But that tally is very much "and counting" because with three days still to go, Mullins admits he has never had a team of horses as strong and as healthy as he has here this week.
Wrong time
"Last year the horses hit a flat spot at just the wrong time before the festival and we came here on something of a wing and a prayer," he said. "But it's almost scary how well they are now. They're doing everything right."
That will strike fear into everyone else considering the depth of firepower Mullins has lined up for the rest of the festival. And it stiffens the conviction that Irish influence on this week might even stretch the boundaries of 2011’s record tally of 13 winners.
Certainly the cross-channel opposition might even be forgiven for checking to see if any snow flurries that fall on Prestbury Park this morning carry a green tinge.
Only the frost that provoked yesterday's postponement of the Cross-Country Chase to tomorrow looked to prevent a fourth Irish success yesterday.
8am inspection
Mullins has a couple of contenders for that race, just as he has for most of them, and will be more anxious than anyone that Cheltenham passes an 8am inspection this morning.
There was no covering the Irish feel-good factor though following Hurricane Fly’s remarkable success and how Quevega pulled victory from the jaws of defeat in the OLBG Mares Hurdle. Almost brought down, when clipping heels at a critical stage of the race, Quevega somehow swept through to match Golden Miller as a five-time festival winner.
If that makes the hugely popular little mare a modern day record holder, her trainer is now out on his own in the overall sense.
Just hours before his Champion Hurdle victory, Hurricane Fly had bitten his trainer in the backside as Mullins for once turned his back on his star performer.
It was the only bum move he made all day.
