HURRICANE FLY MADE it three successive wins in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday.
The nine-year-old travelled easily as stablemate Thousand Stars and One Cool Shabra made the early running.
Paul Townend had a look through his legs to see Ruby Walsh in his slipstream, and the Irish rider did well to ease the favourite for the Champion Hurdle to the head of affairs and his success became a formality.
In victory, Hurricane Fly became the first horse since Istabraq to record three wins in the race.
Willie Mullins was left with a one-two in the feature as Thousand Stars fought off a valiant attempt from Binocular to take second.
Mullins said: “He’s well used to these conditions and he flies through that ground so everything went according to plan.
“We didn’t know what One Cool Shabra was going to do, but we weren’t going to be hanging around with either horse (Hurricane Fly and Thousand Stars) if there was no pace.
“When you look at the race it was a tip-top race. Everything had gone 100% in his preparation.”
Hurricane Fly is now 5-2 favourite to regain his Champion Hurdle title at Cheltenham on March 12.
