Cheltenham Festival
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
These 225 comments are related to the topic:
Hurricane Fly thread
Hurricane Fly thread
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 225
|
By:
It would have been more testing for HF if the ground had been good ... all of Mullins were fit today.
|
|
By:
Only seen this the once, but Hurricane has bags of class and put up a pretty good performance today imo. However, loads in with a chance 2 out, suggesting a slowly run affair, and a sprint is the last thing the one paced, slow and fairly average stayer (though i adore him) SOlwhit would want. Out sprinting SOlwhit from 2 out in heavy ground is not CH form IMO but he was impressive nevertheless, particularly given how infrequently we have seen him.
|
|
By:
Agree with that R Carver ... maybe a bit of kidology on HF's fitness before the race persuaded Solwhit's connections to ease of the pace still expecting a win?
|
|
By:
todays race was supposed to be right up solwhits street,from a hf point of view it's encouraging to see that he comfortably gets further than 2 miles, we already know he travels and is speedy, we can now add to that the (probable) likelihood that he'll get up the hill well.....he's a big player in what is fast developing into "the" race of the festival.
|
|
By:
As R Carver has said we have seen him so infrequently, and so far he seems to have few chinks in his armour.
His lack of course experience would concern me and can he be the one to overcome the Montjeu Cheltenham hoodoo  |
|
By:
Not this Montjeu Cheltenham thing again.
Most Montjeu's are stargazers, if you actually watch the Fly he sticks his head down low and tries his heart out with his eyes popping out his head. You can't say anything about it until he runs at Chelt, and the way he runs you have to say Chelt will be fine for him. |
|
By:
jumps fine,has shown real turn of foot many times,and stays well.HF is a major player alright,lets hope he stays sound.
Solwhit not a CHurdler as i keep saying.Should be saved for Aintree,2 and half ideal for him,too slow at 2m,only real soft ground would see him as a threat in the CH. |
|
By:
I have always said, this horse is special. None of this suff like binocular only performing at Champion Hurdle day. Hurricane Fly is a champion, a horse you can follow for his career like Moscow and Kauto and come out at the end with great memories and plenty of winnings. I was there yesterday at the winning post as I was at Punchestown. Great scenes.
Absoluty love this horse to bits, always have. He is now firmly up there in my top three favourite horses ever. I am up to my eyeballs on him for the Champion Hurdle ap @ 12/1 for all that's good in the world he better win. |
|
By:
Of course now I'm going to have to spend most of my time defending him on here now
 |
|
By:
i agree that he is indeed a very good horse.its slightly worrying that he won over 2 1/2 yest..not that he won but would it put a slight worry that maybe 2m might be a bit short for him?how would he go in the stayers?or indeed the aintree race maybe
|
|
By:
You can't be serious? I mean c'mon the horse is the fastest in training, has lots of guts, is slick as you like over his hurdles and has stamina and most of all buckets of class.
He is the perfect champion hurdle horse, the only box he doesn't tick is course form. |
|
By:
CV,we dont know hes the fastest,he could be,but so could Binocular,and maybe others who are still improving like Menorah.
|
|
By:
Ok, but he has buckets of speed one way or the other. Sure he has run on the flat. Also anyone who can make Go Native look slow has plenty of speed.
This guy is top class and there isn't a thing to dislike about him. He's only six and the best is yet to come. |
|
By:
I don't think you'll need to do too much defending of HF, CV, as he speaks so well for himself. Lovely looking horse and already shown so many excellent qualities.
I don't think there is much to crab. The lack of course form is an issue, but the importance of course form at the Festival is supposed to be over-exaggerated, isn't it, according to some statistics that were being quoted last season. The only other issue that occurs to me, and it also applies to some extent to Menorah, is that you could say that HF has been out speeding them so far rather than winning races where the pace has really stretched them out and got to the bottom of some of the good horses in contention. Yesterday, for example, they were fairly bunched up not so far from home. Similarly, we know the Bula wasn't run at anything like full championship pace at an end-to-end gallop. The pace profile of his last two races has also meant that HF has benefited from getting a reasonable tow into the final stages. Sometimes in the CH the field is really thinned out by the time they start to come down the hill and that is possibly not quite so ideal for horses that are better in a pack that helps bring them to a point close home where they can out sprint to the line. No real evidence though that is an issue with HF. He looks a determined individual that could quite possibly readily make up ground if necessary some way out without necessarily needing a pack of other horses around him to bring him there when there has been a good pace on. Those are very small, niggling doubts. The bigger feeling with me is what an amazingly exciting horse HF looks and fantastic to have him right there in the mix for the CH. |
|
By:
The bigger feeling with me is what an amazingly exciting horse HF looks and fantastic to have him right there in the mix for the CH.
i echo that AKA. |
|
By:
i agree aka good post. Im happpy he didnt blow up over the extra few furlongs aswell it tells me he has the stamina to last to the line in a champion hurdle. Something that the likes of Menorah has yet to prove.
|
|
By:
What I like most about him is how he's won his last four races in different style at three different tracks over two distances on different going.
He's shown exceptional speed to beat go native He's shown his class after bring boxed in at punchestown , when a gap appeared he flew though it like lightening. Then beating solwhit at punchestown he went four wide round the bend to get to him and was hard on the steel jumping the last and showed stomach for the fight to get up. Then yesterday showed his stamina and class to beat solwhit even further in what was a race where the conditions suited solwhit perfectly. He is just such a classy animal and he seems to be improving. he's only 6 after all. |
|
By:
Hardly a chink in his armour and he is very, very exciting. I was most impressed by how well he stayed and it is indeed very hard to pick faults in the horse.
Just praying he stays fit and well and gets the chnace to fulfil his unlimited potential. |
|
By:
Brooksie,
Menorah has got home fine in 2 races at Chelt,HF has not even raced there.I take your points re stamina over 2and half,but this is a 2m race and although Menorah has not proved he can get home in a CH,nor has HF,but at least we know Menorah has no problem with the course,and gets the hill well.I would say he will get home fine in a CH myself with evidence we have seen. |
|
By:
Given how Hurricane Fly takes his racing I wouldn't worry about him getting Cheltenham or getting home in a Champion. He proved he has plenty of stamina yesterday. My worry is him actually getting there.
|
|
By:
Oh i think you are right there mate,i was referring more to Menorah not getting home,dont think either will have a problem in that dept.Biggest problem they have is finishing in front of what will be a tough field to beat.As also applies to all of them!!
|
|
By:
I look at all the main threats and see reasons why at least 6 could win the race!
|
|
By:
I agree bud, crackin renewal on the cards here. I think back to Katchit's
 race and think where he and Osana are now. What I really like about Hurricane Fly though is he's had trouble in running for 3 of his last 4 races. Yesterday he was stuck in traffic as Solwhit was taking it up, while in Punchestown he had to go four wide on the bend to get to Solwhit. While in his Punchestown novice win he was boxed in and couldn't do anything, then a gap opened when they were almost at the last flight and he zipped through and pinged the last and scooted clear. He's everything you want from a Champion Hurdle horse. What I can't wait for is his turn of foot on good ground when he's fully fit. We haven't seen it since he put an astonishing ten lengths on go native after the last hurdle at Leopardstown. There is more to come from this fella and 6.8 is still good odds to be backing at imv. I still think Go Native is stonking good value though. |
|
By:
Budd do youself a favour and rewatch Hurricane Flys last 4 wins. He travels so well and he's always on the bit coming to the last. Especially check out his Leopardstown win, look at the speed of him after the last, just look at how fast he's going crossing the line. That is the form he can get in when he's had a run. He hasn't had a chance to reproduce that because he's off a break for his runs after that.
|
|
By:
I will mate,although i have watched all his races,i will take another look.
Whats happening with GN,any idea? Backed him few weeks ago,and hes bigger price now!! |
|
By:
I have him nrnb with Lads, I think he'll mist Kempton and run in Irish Champion as a warm up for Chelters. Dunguib, Solwhit, HF and Go Native. It'll be a belter of a race.
|
|
By:
Fly will p!ss that imo
|
|
By:
GN will need the run i would think,Solwhit cant beat HF over his distance so has no chance over 2m,and Dunguib cannot jump anywhere near as good and will lose ground he cant afford to.
No contest,anything else likely to give him a race? |
|
By:
Over here he will muller all comers without much effort. He's by a distance our best hurdler.
I think I'll need to get a bit more on fly nrnb credit his next run. I think I need to be on him more than I currently am. |
|
By:
Im a big fan but you be suspicious with his form. Out of novice company he was
- been beaten by solwhit and muirhead - beaten solwhit narrowly - beaten sowhit again think he is a star but until he runs in a champion dont think we will know for sure |
|
By:
Well after he lost to solwhit he was out for six months so it's fair to say that wasn't his true form. Also he has been off a long break against a race fit solwhit who he beat both times this year. And be fair to solwhit he's won six grade ones been sick before the champion hurdle and lost to the fly twice. Why people knock him is beyond me. Dont forget the fly has form with go native too.
|
|
By:
Not knocking him at all, and agree solwhit is a pretty good yardstick. Anyone who wins 6 grade 1s clearly has something about him. solwhit reminds me of beef or salmon though in that, whilst he was a multiple grade one winner, he was never going to win the big one.
|
|
By:
I wouldn't be over-concerned about either HF or Menorah seeing out the trip well enough in a fast run (end-to-end gallop) CH. But the point we won't know until they have actually run in a race with the kind of pace profile typical of a CH, is how well their breathing will hold up to the extreme pressure of racing so close to the limits of what the very best two mile hurdlers over the decades have been able to achieve. It is the lung-bursting nature of the race, at the pace it is typically run, which represents the journey into the unknown for horses that have not previously clocked the kind of times, off a similar pace profile, that are often recorded by the winner in the CH.
In a sense, it is more a class issue than a stamina issue. Some good horses just don't breathe efficiently enough going that testing pace to last home well in the CH, and any that don't settle well in the race are particularly disadvantaged. Binocular, I think, has posted four TS ratings over 150. That is some indication at least that he is well capable of running at a fast clip over extended distances within the two mile trip. The others, on the clock at least, still have a bit more to prove, though KK achieved two good TS ratings last season for his runs in the Bula and the CH. If there wasn't still something for the promising up-and-coming ones to prove, though, we wouldn't have such an interesting race to look forward to in March. |
|
By:
aka ... very good post.
The nature of the Supreme Novices means young horses are tearing bits out of each other to get to the line first. It isnt a travel easy go late race such as those in Ireland on softish ground, it represents the kind of true end to end test that a Champion Hurdle brings and on opening day ground. Menorah was exceptional last season but the hype for Dunguib over-shadowed this. He has franked that this season and could easily be the best we have seen since Istabraq. Binocular has been there and done it and was an exceptional winner but he will need to be every bit as good this season to prevail again. |
|
By:
I'm not sure how good any Go Nativ form is.
|
|
By:
Hi, Eric.
I think my view would be that the SN is usually some kind of preparation for telling whether a horse will be capable of coping with the pressures of the fast pace they tend to go in the CH. It would certainly be a better preparation than most smaller field, high quality two mile hurdle races that are staged away from the spring festivals where there generally isn't enough early pace on to mirror the speed they have to go over extended distances in the CH. But, as we know, they generally don't go quite as fast in the early stages in the SN as they do in the CH. That difference is usually the main factor accounting for the quicker time that the CH often returns relative to the SN. Sometimes, of course, they go off too fast in the CH, and the pace then collapses in the middle section of the race, as happened in 2008, with some good horses well cooked by the time they got to the top of the hill in that race. That can result in the respective times of the SN and CH being closer, though the CH would still generally be the more demanding of the two races because of the fast early pace the horses have to cope with. I am reasonably confident Menorah will be ok, even if the early pace in the CH is faster than he encountered in the SN, but it would have been good to have some more evidence to support that view had the Bula this time been run at nearer the pace they went last season when KK won the renewal, or the season when Osana won the Bula. At this early stage, I imagine Overturn is the most likely source of any fast early pace in the CH next March. On better ground, that will be interesting to see. |
|
By:
uby Walsh can barely contain his enthusiasm for Hurricane Fly after his victory in the much-rearranged Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Wednesday.
Walsh, currently on the sidelines with a broken leg, would have ridden Willie Mullins' five-time Grade One winner. Hurricane Fly has had a series of niggling injuries which have forced him to miss the last two Cheltenham Festivals, but Walsh is hoping he has a clear run this season. "This is probably the first time in a long time Willie has had no hold ups with him. Last year, before he went to Punchestown, he'd had a hold up through the winter whereas this year things have gone really right for him," said Walsh. "His Flat form is very good. He could have gone for the Champion Stakes and the Arlington Million with him, he's a high-class Flat horse but he loves jumping and has a great attitude. "Willie was surprised he beat a race-fit Solwhit, but that's the regard he holds Solwhit in. "The trip was never going to be an issue. I won a two-three hurdle race in France on him as a four-year-old. "He's a wonderful little horse. He has loads of speed and he stays." Walsh was also hugely taken with the youngster Zaidpour, who maintained his unbeaten record in the Royal Bond. "Obviously you can only win the race you're in and the ratings might be questionable, but his performance was breathtaking," Walsh told At The Races. "He loves soft ground and he is a half-brother to Zaynar. He's a real exciting type." |
|
By:
Why do you say that RC? Supreme winner, Fighting Fifth and Christmas hurdle winner, was fav for the champion in march and got injured. Can't really knock him to be fair.
|
|
By:
Good post aka,soft ground races in ireland run at a crawl.million miles away from normal CH conditions.
Solwhit can win as many soft ground grade 1's as he likes,he will never be a CH horse unless same conditions prevail. HF could well be champion,but i would not back him cos of form with Solwhit.Has he won an end to end gallop type 2m race yet??I would say no,but i aint checked,so apologise if i am wrong. |
|
By:
While the punchestown race in april was run at a good pace.
Even if he hasn't run and won an end to end gallop race, is there any reason to think he won't win one? |