? Cheltenham hero short odds for 2012 Festival
? Binocular only third after having to make running
Festival week began with the unveiling of a giant portrait of Istabraq and reached a climax here on Fridaywith a glorious performance in the Champion Hurdle by Hurricane Fly, widely seen as the best hurdler since the days of that former great. "He'd win a Group One on the Flat, too, if you wanted," was the breathless verdict of his rider Ruby Walsh, who described him as the best hurdler he had ridden "by far".
"He's a very, very impressive horse, huge engine," said the jockey. "I was worried I was in front too soon, but that was it."
Those who backed him at 1-2 may have had more concern when the tapes went up and the field stood still, with Tony McCoy on Binocular setting a very reluctant pace when it was clear that no one else would. But Nicky Henderson's challenger capped a most frustrating season by jumping badly left at a couple of flights before fading into third.
Thousand Stars was runner-up, meaning Willie Mullins had trained the first two in the big race for the second consecutive day, following Quevega's win in the World Series Hurdle on Thursday. As on that occasion, this was also a one-two for the Walsh family, with Katie riding the second.
Mullins smiled when the winner was compared with Istabraq but denied having any such thoughts himself, saying his only thought was to get this notoriously fragile animal home to Carlow in one piece, with the aim of a similar campaign next winter. He named Hurricane Fly's win in Cheltenham's Champion Hurdle as the highlight of the past 12 months because of the sheer achievement in finally getting him there, a feat that had been beyond him in the previous two years.
"It was the whole focus of our season," the trainer said. "I think Paul Townend has a lot to do with it. Paul and Emmet Mullins rode him out the whole season, with Jack Madden as third reserve.
"They're the only people who rode him work and they had a big part to play in just keeping him right. Their whole job was just to make sure every blade of grass he trod on, every step he took was safe. No horse was to come near him. He did a lot of work on his own this year. The whole focus was to look after him as much as we could and it paid off.
"There's always a horse to beat you, you never know what's going to happen. When today's race looked like it was so messy at the start, I thought, could he slip up on the bend or something else? But he was so strong and so well today, it would take a fair horse to beat him on that form."
The winner is just 7-4 with Stan James to go back and retain his crown at Cheltenham in 2012.
While this was a display of raw pace, Wishfull Thinking had earlier given a breathtaking display of stamina to win the novice handicap chase under top weight, giving 13lb and more to every other runner. Sudden rain on top of the heavily watered track made for a real slog but a sequence of powerful leaps kept him clear at the head of the field to give Philip Hobbs and Richard Johnson their second win of the week.
Johnson later notched a third when Spirit Of Adjisa won a Grade One novice hurdle for the low-profile Welsh yard of Tim Vaughan.
Today Mullins will be crowned champion Irish jumps trainer for the fifth time, his tallies of 105 winners and ?2.2m in prize money both being almost double the totals recorded by his nearest competitor, Noel Meade. He has had seven winners here this week and there are another 14 horses to run today.
Despite the general bonhomie of ladies' day, Mullins is not the kind of man to show up at noon and sample the atmosphere before racing.
As his Uncle Junior battled to victory in the staying handicap chase, the second race of the day, the trainer was just pulling into the car park.
Traffic problems in Kilcullen? "No, just late as usual," he admitted, grinning broadly. The manic schedule that comes with managing so many horses has meant many such incidents. "I saw about the last three fences. When Ballytrim won this two years ago, I had to listen to the whole thing in the car park."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/may/06/hurricane-fly-punchestown-champion-hurdle
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