Willie Mullins turns attention to fifth Champion Hurdle for Hurricane

Willie Mullins is still on a high after Hurricane Fly's latest brilliant triumph at Leopardstown.

The hurdler made it 21 Grade One wins and also made it nine out of nine at the Foxrock venue as he got the better of reigning Champion Hurdle hero Jezki for the second time this season in the Ryanair Hurdle.

Ireland's champion trainer said Hurricane Fly was none the worse for his exertions and was now on course to bid for an historic fifth victory in the Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown in late January.

“It’s getting to the point with him now where I just let him do the talking,” said Mullins. “He’s just a fantastic horse with fantastic ability.

“He has won [the Champion Hurdle] twice at Cheltenham but maybe because he has disappointed once there it affected his followers, I don’t know. There’s certainly something about Leopardstown that suits him, though.

“He’s just a horse with huge ability but also with a tremendous amount of guts. It’s onwards and upwards for the Irish Champion Hurdle next.

“Ruby [Walsh] mentioned that going down to the start he didn’t seem as geed up as normal. maybe something was too tight, I don’t know. But once he got warmed up, he was fine.

Gorse stuck

“He then got a bit of gorse stuck in his girth and that must have been sore, but he obviously ignored that and was very brave.

“That’s just one of those things that happens in races. It’s not an issue now and he came home and ate up well. He’s some horse.”

Paddy Power make Hurricane Fly a 4-6 chance to beat his old rival Jezki (6-4) in the BHP Irish Champion Hurdle next month.

Mullins is keen to keep his two top-notch novice chasers apart with Don Poli and Valseur Lido in the mix for the Dr PJ Moriarty Chase.

Valseur Lido was last seen winning the Drinmore Novice Chase by eight lengths from Apache Stronghold, while Don Poli beat the same Noel Meade runner by three lengths in the Topaz Novice Chase on Monday.

In recent seasons the Moriarty has been a good pointer towards the RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival a month later. Speaking of Valseur Lido, who like Don Poli is owned by Gigginstown House Stud, Mullins said: “He’s a fair sort too and could be an RSA horse.

“The Moriarty is a race I had set out for him but I wouldn’t want to put him and Don Poli together.

“We didn’t want to run him at Christmas as it gave us more options then in January. He’s in good form.”

Connections of Bobs Worth are putting his disappointing defence of his crown in the Lexus Chase purely down to the testing conditions at Leopardstown. Last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup hero was sent off favourite to repeat last year’s win, but was one of the first horses under pressure.

Nicky Henderson's nine-year-old plugged on in the straight to finish eighth of nine runners and part-owner Malcolm Kimmins is keen to put a line through the race.

Horrendous

“The ground was horrendous and he just couldn’t deal with it. There was no point destroying him on that sort of ground,” Kimmins said.

“He looked very well before the race and Barry [Geraghty] was very pleased with the way he felt. He just didn’t like the ground.

“It was a disappointing trip for his supporters, but he lives to fight another day.”

Kimmins was non-committal when asked whether Bobs Worth would run again between now and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.

“I think we’ll just see how he is. The Gold Cup has always been his major aim and we’re still on track for that,” said the owner.