CHAMPION HURDLE REPORT:IT WOULD have been easy for Willie Mullins to plámás his young jockey Paul Townend after Hurricane Fly's tumultuous victory in yesterday's Stan James Champion Hurdle, told the media throngs it was a hugely difficult call between Townend and Ruby Walsh. But that's not the champion trainer's way.

Quickly asked the inevitable, if ultimately academic, question about whether he had dithered over keeping Townend on Hurricane Fly instead of replacing him with Walsh, who had after all spent most of the season out injured, Mullins didn’t duck it.

“No, it wasn’t really a difficult decision. You ask yourself can you leave Ruby Walsh on the sidelines when you have the favourite for the Champion Hurdle?” he said, in the manner of a man for whom the question was purely rhetorical.

Later Mullins admitted he would rather “a half-fit Ruby Walsh than most fellas who’re fully fit”. And almost in the same breath he assured Townend that he would attempt to make him champion jockey in Ireland this season. And when the Co Carlow-based trainer says something like that, Townend knows better than most he means it. Straight-forward and approachable, there is also a measured intelligence to Mullins that at least partly explains his general popularity within racing.

The sort of popularity is a good trick to pull off when you’re stable is so overwhelmingly dominant that the 27-strong team he has brought to Cheltenham dwarfs every other Irish trainer. But even with that dominance, Hurricane Fly’s triumph has filled a major gap.

Despite moving past Edward O’Grady as the most successful current Irish trainer at the Cheltenham Festival, Mullins knew more than anyone that neither the Gold Cup or the Champion Hurdle had fallen to him prior to yesterday.

Hurricane Fly, though, had long been considered one with the potential to change that depressing statistic. But a suspensory problem and a splint issue had prevented him travelling to the festival before. It was easy then to believe the trainer’s assertion that the focus all season has been purely on getting him here.

“It was nerve-wrecking. The minutes were like hours towards the end. But once he was here and out of the parade ring, the relief was there. Then it was up to Ruby,” he said.

Walsh was once in Townend’s position as a young jockey on the up with a whole career lying in wait. And he, too, first made his mark with Mullins. The Irish champion trainer may have to share his protégé with his counterpart in Britain, Paul Nicholls, but he and Walsh have always had a close relationship. On the day that mattered most, the trainer was always going to plump for the proven article.

And as per usual when the pressure was on Walsh delivered in style. Peddlers Cross had everything go right for him yesterday while Hurricane Fly didn’t. It was noticeable how hard the Irish favourite pulled in the early stages and the ear-plugs he wore testify to a somewhat combustible personality.

However, he was smuggled around to deliver his challenge at the last and then exhibited the vital stomach for a battle that is the final decisive mix in the Hurricane Fly cocktail.

“He is a horse who is hard on himself. He’s like a rubber ball, always has to be doing something,” Mullins said. “You can’t ask him for everything at home because he would do too much. That’s why it is so important to have someone cool riding him.”

Walsh had to be at his chilliest and admitted: “We did it the hard way. I never got him to settle really, and he ran keen all the way. We knew he had unbelievable speed and class but people were doubting – Willie, Paul and myself, we always believed he had it.”

Hurricane Fly is now a 5 to 2 favourite in some ante-post lists to come back in 2012 and retain his title, shorter odds than he started at yesterday. But that was the impression he made.

“If he can stay injury free, then we will try and come back. But if not, then it is great that he made it here for one day at least and did so well,” Mullins said.

Grateful, realistic and typically plámás free.

Champion Hurdle

WinnerHurricane Fly 11/4fav

SecondPeddlers Cross 9/2

ThirdOscar Whisky 7/1

Winners All Right . . .

In 'Brian's Picks' in yesterday's paper, Brian O'Connor had three winners – Captain Chris, 6/1 winner of the Irish Independent Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase; Quevega, 5/6 winner of the David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle; and 10/1 outsider Divers, who claimed the last race of the day, the Centenary Novices' Handicap Chase.

A €10 treble on the trio would have returned €1,412.