Horse Racing: Hurricane Fly victorious in Festival Hurdle
Apart from the splendid Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase, Leopardstown also staged the Paddypower.com iPhone App Festival Hurdle. This was also a Grade I event and was run over a distance of 2 miles. The colt Hurricane Fly stole the show with an impressive performance
against his major rival Solwhit. After this victory, the colt has now been promoted to the upcoming Stan James Champion Hurdle.
Immediately after his victory in this meeting, Stan James made Hurricane Fly an obvious favourite for the much anticipated Cheltenham Festival. From 4-1, the Willie Mullins trainee was made a 3-1 favourite for the aforementioned event in March.
The six-year-old champion has been training under the care of Willie Mullins and was successful in defeating the first runner-up Solwhit in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle that took place two weeks ago.
Hurricane Fly and Solwhit are being considered each other’s arch rivals; nonetheless the former colt’s victory in today’s event gave Hurricane Fly clear dominance over Solwhit. Solwhit, on the other hand, was the winner of this event in the last racing season.
As the race started, the pace was established by the talented Luska Lad, who was sent out as an 8-11 favourite. He was followed by Hurricane Fly. Meanwhile, the third spot was occupied by Solwhit, who has been training under the care of Charles Byrnes. Moreover,
the colts Thousand Stars and Won In The Dark completed the field of five contenders.
The competitors were seen to run in one field and while turning before the last flight, the field covered a distance of five lengths. By this time, the leading participant Luska Lad was being held off by the winner Hurricane Fly who was being ridden by jockey
Paul Townend.
At the second last turn, Hurricane Fly took a big jump that did not really help him cross Luska Lad; however he was successful in holding off Luska Lad at the last hurdle. Solwhit on the other hand, was steady throughout the race but finally managed to win
the race in the second spot. The last could have altered the results of the event, but Hurricane Fly managed to dominate the field by two and a half lengths.
In a post race interview, the trainer Willie Mullins was reported as saying, “I thought he was a bit dead today before the race after having that hard race at Fairyhouse two weeks ago, but he’d done it so well. He seems to be a lot more settled and we will
come back for the Irish Champion Hurdle.”
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