Hurricane Flys into contention for Cheltenham

With the Cheltenham Festival just six weeks away, the countdown to the biggest jumps meeting of the entire season has begun in earnest and Willie Mullins’ Hurricane Fly stamped himself a real Champion Hurdle candidate when running out the very impressive winner of the BHP Insurance Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday.
A high-class hurdler, Hurricane Fly went off a very prohibitive 4/9 favourite to beat his four rivals in this €110,000 Grade One two-mile contest and Paul Townend’s mount didn’t let his fans down.
Content to track his Katie
Walsh-ridden stablemate A Thousand Stars for three-quarters of this race, Hurricane Fly mounted his challenge in between that horse and Solwhit going to the final flight and it was as clear as day that Townend’s mount was travelling much the better at that stage.
The winner glided over the last before bounding away on the run-in to beat old rival Solwhit and Davy Russell by three-and-a-half-lengths with the pace-setting A Thousand Stars battling on bravely a further two away in third.
Looking back at Sunday’s race, it is quite clear we didn’t learn anything about Hurricane Fly that we didn’t already know.  No doubt he’s top-class but all he did in winning Sunday’s race was confirm that he’s a better horse than Solwhit. He is, without doubt, our best hope of winning the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, but is he good enough to beat the likes of last year’s champion Binocular and young pretenders such as Peddler’s Cross and Menorah?
To his credit, Hurricane Fly can only beat what is put in front of him and the race looked a genuine Champion Hurdle trial in light of the fact that A Thousand Stars set a spanking gallop.
Winning trainer Willie Mullins was very pleased with his charge’s display. “We always thought he was a real talent, but he has had niggling little problems,” he said.
“He cut his heel here the last day and I wasn’t overly impressed with his final piece of work at home during the week. I was hoping that adrenaline and running on grass would ensure he was okay and that was the case.”
Outlining his plans on the build-up to Cheltenham, Mullins continued, “I can’t see him running again before the festival. We will take him home, give him a little break and build him up again for the Champion Hurdle. He tends to jump a little bit to his right when there are no horses on his outside, but is very slick when there are other horses around him.”
Mullins, who was savouring his first-ever success in the Irish Champion Hurdle following Hurricane Fly’s victory, had earlier kicked off the day in the best possible fashion when taking the opening Frank Conroy Memorial Maiden Hurdle with 100/30 favourite Day Of A Lifetime.
Paul Townend, who was securing the first leg of a double, did the steering aboard this Fairyhouse bumper winner who looked a smart recruit to jumping when surging clear from the final flight to beat Tony Martin’s Gigginstown House runner Gift Of Dgab by two-and-a-half-lengths.
The Rich Ricci-owned winner, who will be entered for both the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the Neptune Investment at Cheltenham, has a big future.
It wasn’t all good news for Mullins, however, as his well-fancied Flat Out (he is out of action for the season as a result) suffered a crashing fall two out in the other Grade One on the card, the Frank Ward Solicitors Arkle Novice Chase. Victory in this €80,000 contest went to Noel Meade’s seven-year-old Realt Dubh who really stuck his neck out in the closing stages.
Paul Carberry gave this son of Beneficial a powerful drive as he forced his mount home a short-head in front of Paul Nolan’s game runner-up Noble Prince. The Arkle at Cheltenham will be Realt Dubh’s next port of call and he’s a best-priced 20/1 for the March 15 showdown.
John ‘Shark’ Hanlon is enjoying a very successful season and the Carlow handler continued the good work when saddling a double at the Foxrock track.
Hidden Cyclone has always been a talented animal and he underlined that fact with a smart success in the competitive Synergy Security Solutions Novice Hurdle.
Ridden by Andrew McNamara, this Stowaway six-year-old came out the right side of a good battle with Ballyhaunis when beating that rival by two lengths. Hanlon is not too keen on taking Hidden Cyclone to Cheltenham, suggesting that the David Mee’s charge needs a good cut in the ground to be seen at his best.
Impressive newcomer Mart Lane (11/4) completed Hanlon’s double when making a winning debut under Brian Hayes in the concluding bumper. Another son of Stowaway, Mart Lane, who races in the familiar silks of owner Barry Connell, stretched clear from the two furlong to record an impressive win over Jessica Harrington’s Burn And Turn.

Master Minded by a whisker
Saturday’s meeting at Ascot survived the cold spell with action at the Berkshire track very much focussed on the Victor Chandler Chase where Master Minded continued his build up to Cheltenham under top jockey Tony McCoy.
Followers of the 4/7 favourite were counting their money when 15-time champion McCoy sent Paul Nicholls’ chaser to the front three out. At this point only Somersby had any chance of making a race of it with the market leader but a good jump two out by Master Minded left Henrietta Knight’s challenger with four lengths to find.
Jumping the last, Master Minded, who has never been beaten at Ascot, was still ahead. In a desperate tussle to the line, McCoy’s mount just clung on to beat the ever-closing Somersby by a rapidly diminishing short-head.
Afterwards McCoy blamed himself for allowing Master Minded hit the front so far out, saying, “He did well to win. I let him run when I shouldn’t have, I should have sat and let him fill up a bit more. He’s a very good horse, he got a bit tired and probably idled a bit in front as well.”
The form of Nicholls’ horses have been a cause for concern in some quarters of late with the champion trainer not having his usual quota of winners in recent weeks.  Expanding on this theory following Master Minded’s narrow success, the Ditcheat handler refused to panic.
“We are obviously not in the best of form at this time of the year. We work them hard so they are fit early in the season, then we take a step back with them in January, so we know we are going to be in much better form later in the season,” he said.
Unfortunately, Haydock’s fixture last Saturday was not so lucky with the meeting, which was due to feature the Peter Marsh Chase, falling foul of the weather.
Noel Glynn’s leading Aintree Grand National hope Becauseicouldntsee was an intended runner in this three-mile event but, having made the journey to the UK track, Glynn was thwarted in his efforts to get a run when the meeting was called off early on Saturday morning due to the track being frozen. 
Closer to home the Connolly’s Red Mills Thyestes Chase card at Gowran Park (rescheduled from the previous Thursday) was also frosted off last Saturday with plans now in place for it to be staged at the County Kilkenny track on Friday.