Hurricane Fly carries Ruby Walsh to comfortable Leopardstown victory

When Christmas came and went without a sighting of Hurricane Fly, last year's Champion Hurdle winner, some backers began to suspect he might not appear at all this season. Ruby Walsh, though, never lost faith. "He's just a great horse," Walsh said on Sunday as he returned to the weighing room after the Irish Champion Hurdle. "I told everyone six weeks ago to take the price [for Cheltenham]." Hurricane Fly's first run since a win at the Punchestown Festival in May was in some ways the most impressive of his outstanding career. It was not so much the winning margin of six and a half lengthsas the manner of it that left a lasting impression, as Walsh's mount "came alive", according to the jockey, as soon as he gave him a squeeze three flights from home. Thousand Stars, a Grade One winner at three miles in the summer, had set a decent pace on heavy ground on a filthy afternoon in Dublin. After an eight-month absence Hurricane Fly might have needed some encouragement to close him down but he caught Thousand Stars in a matter of strides with Walsh still motionless in the saddle. In such conditions his class was overwhelming. "I was nervous before the race with him having been off so long and then there was all the rain," Willie Mullins, Hurricane Fly's trainer, said. "My other runners today had been disappointing so I was just worried. Sometimes we go through a day when they all run bad for no reason. "In the parade ring before the race he was walking around like an old handicapper, when normally there would be two people to steady him, and I was very apprehensive before the race. As it progressed, it didn't help much either, as we set a good pace with Thousand Stars and he just slotted in. "Ruby said he wondered if anything was going to come when he gave him a squeeze but, when he did, he said he just came alive and he put in as good a performance as I've ever seen from him." When Walsh was telling people to get on for Cheltenham, Hurricane Fly could be backed at 2-1, but only one bookie was offering even money after Sunday's race and another was as short as 4-6. Even that price is likely to come under pressure over the next six weeks, as Hurricane Fly has twice been forced to miss the Festival in the past, but as the meeting approaches, the money will surely arrive. "Maybe he's just learned to take racing in his stride now and therefore he's able to contain all his speed, because he certainly has plenty of that," Mullins said. "The whole thing with this guy is that we know he's got the engine, we just have to keep him sound and mind him all the time. The last seasons have been good in that way, so we just have to keep him going for another six weeks." Mullins and Walsh completed a quick double when Boston Bob took the following race, a Grade Two novice hurdle over two-and-a-half miles, and the winner is now quoted at single-figure odds for both the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle, over three miles, and the Neptune Novice Hurdle, over two miles and five furlongs, at Cheltenham However, Flemenstar, the impressive winner of the Grade One Arkle Novice Chase, will not be going to the Festival as Peter Casey, his trainer, does not expect faster ground to suit him. He will be prepared instead for the Powers Gold Cup at Fairyhouse later in the year.