Hurricane Fly has been tightened in betting to regain his Champion Hurdle title at Cheltenham following his 13th Grade One victory.
The Willie Mullins-trained star made easy work of Saturday’s Festival Hurdle at Leopardstown with Ruby Walsh aboard, beating Unaccompanied by seven lengths.
Champion Hurdle sponsors Stan James trimmed Hurricane Fly to 9-2 from 5-1 to regain his crown but left Darlan the 4-1 favourite.
Paddy Power made Hurricane Fly outright market leader at 7-2 while BetVictor have Hurricane Fly and Darlan the 7-2 joint-favourites.
“We’re delighted with that, not just with the win but by the way he settled,” Mullins said.
“He will come back here for the Irish Champion Hurdle before going to Cheltenham.”
Hurricane Fly won the Cheltenham feature in 2011 and finished third in his attempted defence in March this year.
In a red letter day for the Mullins family, the trainer’s son Patrick broke the long-standing record for the most wins in a calendar year by an Irish amateur with a double.
He went to 74 wins for the year, two ahead of Billy Parkinson who rode 72 winners in 1915.
“To achieve the record on the second last day of the year was extra special,” he said.
“I owe it all to Dad of course. We had such a great summer and it wasn’t until September that we thought there might be a chance of making an attempt at the record.”
