LEOPARDSTOWN PREVIEW:THE HUGELY lucrative €190,000 Paddy Power Chase doesn't normally have to compete for any limelight but a triple-Grade One card worth €568,000 in total indicates how Leopardstown's Christmas Festival 2010 has already been anything but normal.
An 11.50 morning start is required for today’s eight-race programme which is the mouth-watering product of a holiday period ravaged by bad weather that can see A1 Irish Cheltenham hopes such as Big Zeb, Hurricane Fly and Zaidpour further cement their festival claims for March.
The original December 29th feature, the Festival Hurdle, has ended up under the Paddy Power banner in the fixture reshuffle but whatever the title there is no doubting Hurricane Fly’s status as the headline act.
In what is turning into a vintage season for top hurdlers, Hurricane Fly is undoubtedly Ireland’s top hope after he returned to action with hugely impressive defeat of his old rival Solwhit at Fairyhouse earlier this month.
A two-week gap might not be completely ideal for Willie Mullins’s star performer but both he and Solwhit are out again in a five-runner contest they look likely to dominate.
After Fairyhouse, Mullins significantly dismissed any idea of keeping Hurricane Fly under wraps for Cheltenham and also expressed the view that the son of Montjeu should improve again for that first start of the season. If that proves the case then Solwhit’s cause could be a tough one indeed.
Another small Grade One field dominated by a Mullins runner is the Future Champions Novice Hurdle and the race title looked appropriate for Zaidpour after he maintained his unbeaten record in style a fortnight ago in the Royal Bond at Fairyhouse.
The ex-French €80,000 purchase could not have been more impressive and in a clash with another promising unbeaten youngster in Hidden Cyclone, Zaidpour is impossible to oppose.
Mullins has three of the five declared runners for the €100,000 Dial-A-Bet Chase including last year’s winner Golden Silver. However, this is one top-flight event where the focus will lift from the champion trainer and instead it is Ireland’s horse of the year, Big Zeb, who will be the limelight performer.
The champion chaser looked at least as good as ever when reappearing in the Fortria at Navan and has been pleasing Colm Murphy on the run-up to this assignment. However, the state of the ground is a concern for the Co Wexford trainer.
“Ideally he wouldn’t be running on ground this heavy, I’d prefer it to be better at this time of year but unfortunately it’s the same for all of them. Touch wood, he’s very good. I couldn’t be happier with him, let’s just hope it all goes well,” Murphy said yesterday.
Golden Silver has repeatedly illustrated the danger of under-estimating him but there will be plenty betting that Big Zeb’s main danger today will be the rising star, Captain Cee Bee.
Eddie Harty’s horse won his first start of the campaign in good style last October and the trainer said yesterday: “The ground will be quite heavy but you’d expect that. The horse is in great form and we’re really looking forward to the race – it will tell us a lot.”
On such a star-studded card, the Grade Two bumper could almost end up overlooked but John Kiely’s Mississippi River could be one to check out while Gordon Elliott’s Cayo Levantado still looks ahead of the game despite a 10lb penalty for winning at Navan last month. Off a low weight he should be a major player in the three-mile handicap hurdle.
