A dire piece of work last week had Willie Mullins fearing Hurricane Fly might be finished. And when the great horse was passed by Our Conor at the final flight of yesterday's BHP Irish Champion Hurdle he wasn't on his own. But that Mullins and everyone of the 7,336 Leopardstown crowd wound up wondering if this might not actually be Hurricane Fly's finest hour indicates the scale of this remarkable animal's talents.
Statistically the argument for Hurricane Fly’s status as possibly Ireland’s greatest ever hurdler is a lot sounder than the bruised foot which briefly threatened his appearance and had Mullins reduced to crossing his fingers he could emulate Istabraq’s four-in-a-row in the Irish Champion.
The trainer admitted if it was any other horse, or any race, he wouldn't have risked him: but Hurricane Fly is a supremely singular figure.
19
top-flight victories
Already confirmed as the world's leading Grade One winner with 19
top-flight victories, he is now a general 5/2 favourite to secure a third Champion Hurdle crown at Cheltenham in six weeks time, and even a clutch of young pretenders, including a couple in his own yard, are still resolutely in the game of playing catch-up.
“I have huge regard for what he did today. It’s maybe better than anything he’s ever done. His last bit of work was so bad, I didn’t know what to do, I thought the dream was over, and we came here only hoping a bruised foot was the reason,” a relieved Mullins said.
"When Our Conor passed him, I thought we were beaten. But I have huge regard for our horse and the guts he showed to fight back. He's just a phenomenon, always able to bring his A-game." That A-plus standard is familiar to both Annie Power and Un de Sceaux, a pair of other Mullins stars in the Champion Hurdle reckoning, which had one firm making the trainer only 6/4 to win the Day One feature at Cheltenham in March. The straight bat Mullins played to queries about the likely final composition of his Champion Hurdle team was Bradman-like, conceding only that "Hurricane Fly goes for the Champion Hurdle, that's all I can tell you."
It’s an understandable position with over a month to the race, and it’s also one that underpins his belief that the older horse is the best he’s ever had, or ever likely to have.
Ruby Walsh knows a thing or two about great horses too, and how to ride them, and neither an uncertain run-up to the race, or a different tactical challenge that saw Our Conor and Jezki having the favourite to run at, could shake Walsh’s belief: that Our Conor headed him only brought to the fore the relish for a battle that has always underpinned Hurricane Fly’s class. “It’s always been there,” said the jockey who rode a 115/1 four-timer on the day. “He has stamina, pace, he jumps, and he battles: he’s the perfect racehorse. The problems during the week were a trainer-issue. I only ride him. Willie just said ‘ride him like a certainty’.”
A perfect eight-from-eight at Leopardstown certainly makes Hurricane Fly a certainty around the Dublin track but Our Conor’s connections are pinning hopes on it being a different story at Cheltenham where Walsh admits the horse has never shown his best.
"All credit to Hurricane Fly, this is his backyard," said Our Conor's owner, Barry Connell. "For a young horse to run him so close we couldn't be more delighted and there is more to come from our horse. He should get closer at Cheltenham."
Got it right
Davy Russell knew the frustration sometimes of getting the pick wrong from Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown team but his successor as number one jockey, Bryan Cooper, got it spot on in yesterday's Ward Solicitors Arkle Chase, and secured a first top-flight win in his new role on board Trifolium.
It was a gutsy choice since 7/1 Trifolium was twice the price of the discard, Mozoltov, yet the Charles Byrnes runner stormed to a nine length victory that firmly puts him in the Arkle picture at Cheltenham. Yesterday's 11/8 favourite Defy Logic faded to fifth after a bad mistake at the third last and he was found to have bled.
“I went with experience,” said Cooper who subsequently was severely cautioned by the stewards for his use of the whip after the last. Such a win can only boost Cooper’s confidence, and the value of confidence was illustrated in Sure Reef’s Grade Two novice hurdle win, with Ruby Walsh dropping out to last on the turn-in, only to rally again for an unlikely success. “It wasn’t Plan A!” admitted Willie Mullins. “But the horse had been so free that Ruby took a chance and allowed him to get his lungs filled.”
