Hurricane Fly impresses in the Irish Champion Hurdle
Hurricane Fly took an impressive victory in the BHP Insurance Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday, January 29, 2012.
Other than Hurricane Fly, there were four other entries in the hurdle. However, none was able to match the winning horse, who stormed to victory by six and a half lengths.
This performance by the eight-year-old horse was surprising for most of the spectators. He was making a comeback after suffering a setback, but did not show any signs of being rusty. Even his trainer, Willie Mullins, did not expect such a convincing
show by his horse.
The veteran trainer said that Hurricane Fly’s run in the Champion Hurdle yesterday was one of the best of his career. He further went onto say that just like the spectators, he too was surprised to witness such a dominating display.
Hurricane Fly was given a starting price of 4 to 5 by the bookmakers, and he was the favourite to win, despite being out of action for the past couple of races in this season. He certainly lived up to his reputation.
The start to the race for, Hurricane Fly, was extremely good, and he continued to build momentum from then onwards. He was absolutely unstoppable after that, as he had a clear run until crossing the finish line.
Hurdle races have been a feature of the George Creighton owned horse, as he has always been placed in them. He has entered such events on 14 occasions, and emerged victorious 12 times. The other two have been a second and third place finishes for him,
which indicates he likes such events.
Other than the triumphant horse, Unaccompanied and Oscars Well were also expected to fight for victory, but they simply failed to make an impression. The latter managed to finish as the runner up, but Unaccompanied ended up in a disappointing fourth
place.
Mullins was pleased with the massive margin of victory and said, “It's relief to have that over. I hoped he'd win but you never know when they've been off for such a long time. I hope he didn't have too hard a race as the ground was very gruelling,
but we have six weeks to Cheltenham and that should give us plenty of time.”
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