Hurricane Fly blows in at Punchestown
After racing had ended on the fourth day of the Punchestown Festival, racecourse officials found a man slumped outside the gates of the track.
He was sitting by the roadside and, although clearly the worse for wear, it had nothing to do with an extended run in one of their bars. Having decided that his senses were somewhere in the next county, they took brief measurements for one of those canvas cardigans with the buckles at the back and contacted the nearest rest home for the bewildered.
As they packed him away in the ambulance someone finally managed to make sense of the sentence that he had been chanting like some ancient mantra. Actually it was not a sentence but a question – “How comes I haven’t backed a Willie Mullins winner this week?”
The man had a point because there have been enough to choose from. There were three more that rolled off the production line on Friday, headed by Hurricane Fly in the Grade One Radobank Champion Hurdle.
Before the race the doubt had been over whether Hurricane Fly could overcome a five-month injury lay-off. The market suggested that he would also have to overcome Dunguib. The horse had been one of Ireland’s bankers for the Cheltenham Festival and had probably cleaned out many bank accounts when he finished third in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. However, the faithful showed their supreme belief by making Dunguib favourite for his first run over hurdles outside of novice company.
Brian O’Connell had Dunguib closer to what was a slow early pace than in recent races. He was upsides Solwhit, but racing rather keenly, just on the heels of the leaders, while Paul Townend – riding with the confidence that big winners bring – held Hurricane Fly and his nerve at the back of the pack. Townend is one of the rising stars of the Irish weighing room and viewed as a potential successor to Ruby Walsh, in whose absence he was taking the ride on Hurricane Fly.
Davvy Russell was taking the bull by the horns as he committed Solwhit at the third-last and he was four lengths clear on the turn. Dunguib was in pursuit, Hurricane Fly now having to make up ground, but it was the Mullins second-string, Thousand Stars, who was closest to make a challenge on the leader. Into the home straight and Dunguib had already capitulated, Thousand Stars was under pressure and Solwhit still had about two lengths to spare, but Townend simply eased Hurricane Fly into contention at the final flight.
The last 150 yards were never going to be that easy and Solwhit fought for every one of them but Hurricane Fly inched his way past to win by a neck, with Thousand Words third. “The one thing I wanted Paul to do was settle the horse, which he did, and he rode him very confidently. We were delighted,” Mullins said.
“As I said beforehand, he’d been doing everything right and had not missed a beat for the last four weeks but I was a bit worried that we might have needed to have taken him away for a second piece of work before today.
“There probably wasn’t a fast pace today, they went quite slow early on, and I think that helped us. The horse’s class pulled him through and he looked like he might be beaten at the last. He could well go out to grass now. Although he’s won in France, I’m not sure there is anything for him out there and while we could go back on the Flat, I’m not sure we want to do that with his temperament because he can be hard to settle.”
There was a second British success when Reve De Sivola, trained in Devon by Nick Williams, battled hard to win the Grade One Cathal Ryan Memorial Champion Novice Hurdle. Daryl Jacob had to be patient when Reve De Sivola was trapped on the rail as Fionnegas and Duke Of Lucca got first run jumping the second-last. The winner was only fifth on the home turn but ground out the finish to beat Fionnegas by a length.
Reve De Sivola had finished second to Peddlers Cross at Cheltenham and Paul Duffy, who heads the horse’s six-strong ownership syndicate, is clearly a man who believes that if you are going to dream, dream big. “You’re looking at the 2012 Gold Cup winner.” Duffy said. “We also have Diamond Harry who will win the 2011 Gold Cup and this horse will be going over fences next season when his target will be the RSA Chase at Cheltenham. We missed Aintree and saved him for this after he was a very good second at Cheltenham.
“His hurdling wasn’t perfect and he missed a couple at the start, but he’s just such a gutsy horse. He got boxed in and didn’t look like the winner at the last, he must have been very big odds in-running, but he’s just so competitive.”
Jacob added: “I was stuck in a pocket three out which didn’t help, but I knew that he wanted to go on and keep galloping. He’s very gutsy and I knew that I had that in my favour. I got a good jump at the last and he just kept finding more.”
Just like the Willie Mullins winners’ factory.
Tags: