Hurricane Fly won the Grade 1 Festival Hurdle at Leopardstown easily
PICTURE: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)Classy Hurricane Fly new Champion favourite
Report: Leopardstown, Wednesday
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HURRICANE FLY was promoted to clear favouritism for the Stan James Champion Hurdle with an easy victory over Solwhit in the Grade 1 Festival Hurdle.
Stan James immediately made Willie Mullins's stable star the clear 3-1 favourite (from 4-1) for the Cheltenham Festival showpiece, and most othe layers trimmed him to 7-2.
Runner-up Solwhit was defeated by the Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old last time out in the Hatton's Grace Hurdle two weeks ago.
The pair have become arch-rivals, but Wednesday's win ensures Hurricane Fly is 3-1 up in his meetings with Solwhit, who won this last year.
Winning trainer: Willie Mullins
PICTURE: Patrick McCannThe pace was set by Luska Lad with 8-11 favourite Hurricane Fly in second spot and the Charles Byrnes-trained Solwhit, a 6-4 shot, sat in third. The five runner-field was completed by the favourite's stablemate Thousand Stars and Won In The Dark.
The contenders travelled in single file and, turning for the penultimate flight, the field was covered by five lengths. But Luska Lad was starting to be niggled by this stage and Hurricane Fly's jockey Paul Townend slowly eased his mount into contention.
Hurricane Fly put in an ungainly leap at the second-last but it did not take much exertion for Townend to draw level with Luska Lad at the final hurdle. Solwhit had been moving smoothly, but was somewhat inconvenienced behind the long-time leader at the last. The obstruction would have made little difference to the final result, however, as Hurricane Fly smoothly opened up a two-and-a-half length lead by the line.
Willie Mullins, winning this race for the first time, said: "I thought he was a bit dead today before the race after having that hard race at Fairyhouse two weeks ago, but he's done it so well. He seems to be a lot more settled and we will come back for the Irish Champion Hurdle."
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