Ireland
will be looking to make
a brilliant start to the 2014 Cheltenham Festival by taking the
opening championship race of the week with Hurricane Fly in the
Champion Hurdle.
Last year’s winner is
aiming to score in the 2m contest for a third time as he was also
successful at Prestbury Park in 2011.
It has been a
record-breaking year for Willie Mullins’ mount as he exceeded the
highest number of Grade One victories in a horse’s career when he
won the Morgiana Hurdle in November at Punchestown. That was his 18th
victory at the highest level in what was his seasonal reappearance
ahead of another shot at the Champion Hurdle near the end of the
campaign.
In the Ryanair Hurdle in
December, he took on a couple of last season’s top novices in Our
Conor and Jezki and was able to hold them both off in a further Grade
One win.
His final outing before
the trip to Cheltenham came in the Irish Champion Hurdle at
Leopardstown. He made no mistake in the race to record his fourth
consecutive victory in the contest.
Hurricane Fly is currently
in a battle with The New One as to who
will go off as favourite in the Champion Hurdle market when the
tape is released on Tuesday.
Nigel Twiston-Davies’
runner has not been seen since finishing second in the Christmas
Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day. He was beaten by My Tent or Yours
after a mistake at the last flight cost him the race of that occasion
as it handed the momentum to his rival in the run in to the line.
The New One was the
impressive winner of the Neptune Investment Management Novices’
Hurdle at the Festival in 2013 and is looking to make it back-to-back
wins at the meeting himself against the more experienced horses this
year.