CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL:HURRICANE FLY completed a fairytale return to Cheltenham action for Ruby Walsh yesterday with a scintillating success in the Stan James Champion Hurdle that was the centrepiece of a remarkable 76 to 1 treble for Ireland's champion jockey.
Just 10 days after returning to action from four months on the sidelines with a broken leg, Walsh helped transform the first day of Cheltenham 2011 into an Irish bonanza.
Another Willie Mullins-trained inmate, Quevega, many punters’ idea of the banker bet of the week, justified those expectations in style under Walsh with a third successive win in the David Nicholson Mares Hurdle, while Sizing Australia maintained Irish dominance in the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase.
But it was Hurricane Fly’s success that will resonate in the memory for a long time to come as the Mullins-trained star fulfilled what many felt was his Champion Hurdle destiny with a thrilling defeat of Peddlers Cross at odds of 11 to 4 favourite.
The victory filled the one glaring omission in Walsh’s big-race CV and allowed the 31-year-old multiple champion jockey complete National Hunt racing’s Grand National-Gold Cup-Champion Hurdle Triple Crown.
“It is days like today that keep pushing you to do this. These are the days you dream of when you’re lying on the floor of a gym, nearly in tears,” Walsh said.
Any doubts about the jockey’s fitness for National Hunt racing’s most competitive week after riding just a single winner since his comeback before yesterday were dashed as early as the very first race when the Paul Nicholls-trained Al Ferof powered through to land the Stan James Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
And when Quevega bolted up at odds of 5 to 6, she provided Walsh with festival win number 30 of his career.
Walsh broke his leg at Down Royal in early November and his rehabilitation was helped by the IRFU’s physiotherapist Brian Green, who was introduced to the jockey by the Ireland rugby team’s outhalf Ronan O’Gara.
“There are a lot of people who’ve give me help; my surgeon, David Moore, Brian Green and my whole family. It feels great to be here. I’ve been runner-up in the Champion Hurdle before on Celestial Halo, Brave Inca and Marble Arch so I know how it feels not to win it,” said Walsh.
It was a bittersweet moment for Paul Townend, who had successfully substituted for Walsh on Hurricane Fly in all three of his previous starts this season and who finished fourth yesterday on the Willie Mullins second-string, Thousand Stars. Speculation that the 20-year-old sensation might remain on Hurricane Fly for the Champion Hurdle was only quashed at the weekend when Mullins confirmed his number-one stable jockey would get back on the horse.
“I just took Paul aside and told him Ruby would ride and he said ‘well, he is the stable jockey’. Paul has done a magnificent job with this horse. He rides him out most mornings and the first time Ruby got on the horse was when we got over here,” Mullins said.
“Paul has done extremely well while Ruby was out and our aim now will be to make him champion jockey in Ireland. I think he is about 10 clear and we will try and put him on some choice mounts before the end of the season,” he added.
There was a huge relief for Mullins, who had failed to get Hurricane Fly to Cheltenham for the previous two years through injury but who was adamant the ex-French horse would show what he was made of given the chance.
“The whole focus this year had been to just get him here and allow people to see how good he can be,” said the trainer, whose late father Paddy won the Champion Hurdle with Dawn Run in 1984.
“He has done everything right all season. For the last month I’ve been pinching myself it has all gone so smoothly. There wasn’t one setback,” Mullins added. “I was worried when Peddlers Cross came back at him after the last but I knew our horse would stay on.”
Hurricane Fly had a length and quarter in hand of Peddlers Cross at the line and the latter’s trainer, Donald McCain, said: “I am not a bad loser but I’m gutted for our horse. It was a hell of a race, though, and we’ve no excuses.”
