Hurricane set to fly on at Leopardsown

Time may wait for no one but waiting for Hurricane Fly to get beaten around Leopardstown has been a futile exercise for a long time and the legendary hurdler's eagerly-anticipated clash with Jezki in the final-day festival feature can prove that futility once again.

Since Hurricane Fly is just a few days away from his official 11th birthday, it’s inevitable that speculation about a possible fading of the powers that have made him one of the all-time great hurdlers is gathering momentum.

This is despite a hugely emotional bounce back to winning Grade One form in last month’s Morgiana, a remarkable 12th top-flight success, where he comprehensively wound back the clock to beat Jezki in decisive fashion.

Great horse

The significance of that win was lost on no one since at the end of last season the great horse looked something of a busted-flush in top-class two-mile terms, having failed at Cheltenham and then looking a shadow of his former self at the Punchestown festival.

Willie Mullins openly speculated on the option of upping Hurricane Fly to three miles this season as a new generation of hurdling upstarts, led by his stable companion Faugheen, came on the scene.

Yet the champion trainer persisted with the Morgiana route, a call that paid off in style, as everything went right for “The Fly”, who picked off Jezki in vintage fashion.

What today’s €100,000 Ryanair Hurdle rematch will show is if that Morgiana was a sentimental “last-hurrah” for a fading star or Hurricane Fly remains a valid contender at the top of the Champion Hurdle tree.

As benchmark tests go, there's none better than the reigning Champion Hurdle winner and Jessica Harrington is confident Jezki will strip sharper for his first start of the season and put to bed the memory of his performance in last year's Ryanair.

It's not often Tony McCoy gets out-ridden but he was comprehensively. So in this race last year as Danny Mullins on the ill-fated Our Conor put him in a pocket which, by the time Jezki was out of, Hurricane Fly had flown.

Famously deserted

McCoy is three from five on Jezki and famously deserted him at Cheltenham. Today’s feature will again represent a mouth-watering tactical clash between him and Ruby Walsh.

But most of all this race will revolve around Hurricane Fly and his attempt to stretch a fantastic unbeaten run around Leopardstown to nine out of nine, all in Grade Ones.

It’s that invincibility around this track which appears to be helping edge the betting in his favour but it was also significant to note Willie Mullins’s comment after Faugheen’s brilliant St Stephen’s Day win at Kempton that he still regards Hurricane Fly as the one to beat in terms of a possible return to Champion Hurdle glory in March.

“It is going to be tough to repeat what he has done for the last few years. If you were a betting man you’d say he’s not going to repeat it and that Faugheen is the one on the way up. Whether he runs in the Champion Hurdle or not, we’ll have to see. We might just keep him back for Aintree. But I still have it in my mind he wasn’t quite right at the end of last year,” Mullins reported.

Any uncertainty about another return to Cheltenham is understandable since despite a pair of Champion Hurdle victories there, Cheltenham has never looked a comfortable fit for Hurricane Fly.

Around Leopardstown though he has been invincible, and there was enough in that Morgiana victory to suggest any diminution of Hurricane Fly’s powers might not be enough around here on soft ground for Jezki to get the better of him.