Hurricane Fly and Ruby Walsh in full flight© Photo Healy Racing
It’s that time of year, nothing yet lost and nothing yet gained. Plenty of horses reappearing in the National Hunt sphere with high hopes and dreams very much intact.
Sunday’s Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown provided a surprise result to many, me included, as Jezki found the power of the Hurricane too much on seasonal return. Hurricane Fly, rising 11 years young was somewhere near his absolute best to land a third success in the contest and whilst he has bloodied the nose of the reigning champ it will still be a braver man than I that will predict similar outcomes through the year when the pair face off again.
I was lucky enough to talk to Ruby Walsh this week for RacingFM about the Fly and when the rest of the RacingFM team heard he was coming on the air many were concerned for my broadcasting safety.
I couldn’t quite understand why they thought it would be anything but straightforward. Rubyis a man at the top of his profession with an air about him, no doubt - a shortness for nonsense - well he is entitled to that isn’t he?!
In any case I thoroughly enjoyed it and to hear him talk about the horse in the way that he did explains a lot about his mentality towards racing and the ultimate aims he shares with the animals he rides. Ruby is a “realist” by his own admission and it wasn’t pessimism that had him arriving at Punchestown last Sunday expecting to come off second best to a “very worthy” reigning champion, it was realism.
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The evidence of their last two runs suggested the guard had changed and Ruby knew that but all he could do was his job, to perfection, in riding a race to give his horse the best chance. His boss Willie Mullins, regular work rider Paul Townend and the team at the yard had done theirs and it was up to the Hurricane to do the rest.
It’s a remarkable achievement and as Ruby said “a good horse always has you dreaming” whilst he is keen to point out you always hope that you might find one like him, it is so rare and to do what he has done since Ruby first rode him to “win a furlong” in a Punchestown maiden, well, who could have expected that.
How many horses careers has Hurricane Fly shaped, you can all dream about being the best and rising through the ranks but when you get there to find a mountain of a horse waiting for you then sometimes that is it, settle for it and look elsewhere. Peddlers Cross and Solwhit spring to mind as obvious offerings up to the greater god that was and still is Hurricane Fly. Solwhit who sadly is no longer with us changed distance of course and was a cracking animal, Peddlers Cross was never the same after seeing the backend of the champ.
Such is the game but a good horse always has you dreaming.
