2012 Irish Champion Hurdle Odds and Betting Preview: Bookies await Hurricane Fly return with trepidation

LEOPARDSTOWN, IRELAND - Bookmakers up and down Ireland and the UK will be awaiting the return of reigning champion hurdler Hurricane Fly this Sunday with plenty of fear. The nine-times Grade One winner makes his belated seasonal debut in the Irish Champion Hurdle and is reported to be in grand form according to connections.

The Irish Champion Hurdle is not only one of the leading trials for the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, but it is also one of the most prestigious races in the Irish racing calendar, along with the Irish Hennessy, the Lexus Chase and the Christmas Hurdle, carrying a total prize fund of €110,000. The race is over two miles, in which there are eight hurdles to be jumped. The favourite has scared off the UK challengers such as Binocular, but he still faces four smart rivals on Sunday.

Hurricane Fly has only once raced in the UK, but he as always been the talk of Irish punters and has been held in high regard by connections for several years. The eight-year-old answered his critics last March to become the first son of Montjeu to win at the Cheltenham Festival at 11/4, and he then completed a stunning season at the Punchestown Festival to easily beat stable-mate Thousand Stars by five lengths, who then went on to win the French Champion Hurdle. Hurricane Fly is best-priced at 8/13 with bet365 to win the Irish Champion Hurdle on Sunday at Leopardstown, where the going is expected to ride ‘good’.

He has won nine of his previous ten races, and will be ridden by Ruby Walsh on Sunday. The reason that he is not shorter than 1/2 with the bookmakers is because he has an absence of 268 days to overcome, and he may ‘need the run’ before going to Cheltenham in March. Hurricane Fly had to miss the Istabraq Hurdle over the Christmas period, but he delighted his trainer with a good piece of work at Leopardstown earlier this month. Willie Mullins is being very patient, but has said that he has been waiting until Hurricane Fly ‘can do himself justice’. Sunday looks to be that day, and the key to the horse in the past has been waiting, something which Mullins learned from his father Paddy.

Hurricane Fly is 3/1 with Paddy Power to complete the Irish Champion Hurdle/Champion Hurdle double for a second consecutive year, or else punters can also just back him to win in March at 15/8 with Sporting Bet, which looks a very attractive price considering how impressive he was at Prestbury Park last year.

The main opposition to Hurricane Fly comes in the shape of the five-year-old mare Unaccompanied, who is trained by Dermot Weld and is 4/1 with Boylesports and Sky Bet to win on Sunday. The daughter of Danehill Dancer finished a good second to Zarkandar in a hot renewal of the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham last year, and then beat St Nicholas Abbey in a listed race on the flat, who later went on to win the Coronation Cup and the Breeders Cup Turf. Just before her fifth birthday she ran the best race of her life to beat Thousand Stars in the Grade One Istabraq Hurdle, although she has plenty to find with the favourite on figures if he runs up to form. Unaccompanied then looks set to go back to Cheltenham in March, and she is currently 12/1 for the Champion Hurdle with William Hill.

Unfortunately for each-way players the bookmakers will only be paying out on the first two home.

Thousand Stars (pictured) is put in at 7/1 by Stan James, and could be the one for the forecast spot. It is interesting that connections keep persisting with two miles for the grey when he clearly gets the three, but having said that he could still line up in the World Hurdle in March, for which he is a 10/1 poke with BetVictor.

Next is Oscars Well at 10/1 with Betfred and Paddy Power, who was unlucky not to win the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle at the last Cheltenham Festival. He is a class act on his day, but has to improve beyond all recognition to trouble the favourite here. Given how well he ran at Cheltenham last year, he could be one to keep on-side at a big price in a couple of months time.

The outsider of the five is Kalann at a general 66/1, but he does not have the class required to win a race of this nature.

The Irish Champion Hurdle is due off at 2.30pm GMT on Sunday 29 February and is live on At The Races and RTE2.

2012 Irish Champion Hurdle Odds

Boylesports.com Hurdle Odds

2012 Champion Hurdle Odds