The Willie Mullins trained Hurricane Fly continued his rise to the top of the hurdling tree with a brilliant success over old adversary Solwhit in this afternoon's BHP Insurances Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown.
The winner's stable companion, Thousand Stars, set a strong pace from the outset but the market leaders, Hurricane Fly and Solwhit, travelled smoothly just a little behind the leader.
The pair moved up onto the heels of the Thousand Stars at the fourth last flight, with Solwhit arguably travelling best of all.
The race materialised into a dead match by the time the field had turned into the straight. However, Corkman Paul Townend, aboard Hurricane Fly, was confident that he had matters in hand and, when he asked his mount to put the race to bed, the response was mmediate.
Solwhit stayed on well in second place but, not for the first time, he was unable to match the speed of Hurricane Fly, who raced to a comfortable three and a half lengths victory.
Winning trainer Willie Mullins said: 'That was a good performance and we'll give him a little break now before building him up again for Cheltenham.
'We didn't know what the plan was going out because we were wondering if Davy Russell would make the running on his horse (Solwhit).
'We weren't sure, so I think between Paul and Katie (Walsh, on Thousand Stars) they must have elected at the start what to do.
'After Thousand Stars won the County Hurdle the way he did we knew he would stay well, so they elected to make the one-two from the start and it seemed to work out.
'I think he'll go straight to Cheltenham now. I haven't any other plans for him. I'm delighted to get that over.
'It's our first Irish Champion Hurdle success so I'm going to enjoy it.'
The winning jockey, Paul Townend, added: 'It was a proper championship gallop. My lad jumped super, and I just gave him a slap after the last.
'He's a true professional and a proper horse.'
The sponsors cut Hurricane Fly from 5-1 to 9-2 for the Stan James Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham after his triumph.
