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racing news |
Hurricane Bang on Course for Leopardstown Return
16/01/12
Champion Irish racehorse trainer Willie Mullins expects to give his star performer Hurricane Fly two more pieces of solid work before returning the 2011 Stan James Champion Hurdle winner to competitive action in the Grade 1 BHP Insurance Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on January 29, writes Elliot Slater.
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There have been a number of false dawns already this season with the outstanding hurdler having been expected to run in the Morgiana Hurdle and the then the Istabraq Festival Hurdle, but on both occasions Mullins took the view that the horse still hadn't really 'come to himself' and resisted the temptation to run. Rumours surrounding the wellbeing of the gelded son of Montjeu duly swept the ante-post markets, but in recent days Hurricane Fly's position as 9/4 ante-post favourite to retain his crown at Cheltenham on March 13 has looked more and more solid following a pleasing racecourse gallop that suggested he is more than likely to at last return to the fray in the Leopardstown contest. Anyone looking at the best Cheltenham Festival odds online will have to keep an eye on him.
Now Mullins suggests that the winner of 11 of his 13 races over hurdles is "100%" and that he is showing all his old sparkle at home. The County Carlow based handler believes that his charge does not need to improve much at all from his latest piece of work to be at his best at Leopardstown where he will bid to extend his winning sequence to seven having gone through last season unbeaten in five outings culminating in his famous success at Cheltenham (where he took the scalp of the previously unbeaten Peddlers Cross), and ending the term with an equally impressive victory over stable companion and subsequent French Champion Hurdle winner Thousand Stars in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle at Punchestown in May.
