Hurricane proves fly in the ointment

Hurricane Fly showed his brilliance remains very much intact when making a superb return from injury in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle at Punchestown.

The six-year-old looked to have the hurdling world at his feet after a spell-binding novice season, which culminated in a runaway success at this meeting 12 months ago.

Following defeat on his reappearance in November, Willie Mullins’ charge suffered a string of problems which led to him missing much of the season, including the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

But Mullins refused to panic and having slowly nurtured his star turn back to full health, he was sent off at 3-1 for a red-hot Grade One featuring last year’s winner Solwhit and top-class novice Dunguib.

Ridden by Paul Townend, Hurricane Fly travelled with his trademark panache throughout and eased into contention on the turn for home.

While Dunguib also cruised up to make his challenge, his effort was ultimately short lived and as he dropped away, Townend continued to exude confidence.

For a moment Hurricane Fly looked like running away with the contest, but Solwhit stuck to his guns at the head of affairs before eventually giving way to his rival, who got on top to score by a neck.

The winner’s stablemate, County Hurdle winner Thousand Stars, ran a fantastic race to finish third, while Alan King’s Medermit fared best of the British contingent in fourth.

Mullins said: “Paul rode him very confidently and they didn’t go a particularly fast pace, it was slow early on and that probably helped us.

“As I said beforehand, he’s been doing everything right and not missed a beat for the last four weeks, but I was worried that he might have needed to get away for a second piece of work.

“Paul’s main job today was to get the horse settled, which he did, and then just ride his race.

“He looked beaten at the last but his class pulled him through.

“He has run in France but I don’t know if there will be a race there to suit him this year. He could also go back to the Flat, but with his temperament I’m not sure I want to do that as he’s quite a hard horse to settle.”

Solwhit’s trainer Charles Byrnes added: “We don’t like getting beat but it was a great run and he was probably not doing a lot in front.

“Another horse to have carried him would have helped and the winner won very well.”