WORLD HURDLE PREVIEW:A LOT of eyes are likely to be as wet as Punchestown's grass if the old hero Brave Inca can finish his comeback season in a blaze of glory today, although the safer bet looks to be that Fiveforthree can prove yet again how time waits for no one.
These two horses look to dominate the day three festival feature, the Ladbrokes World Series Hurdle, and there is no doubt which of them will be the sentimental favourite.
Brave Inca has been one of the banner performers during a hugely successful decade for Irish National Hunt racing, with his 2006 Champion Hurdle success at Cheltenham remaining a monument to that unique mixture of class and guts that has gained him such a popular position.
In his pomp nothing ever got past him without feeling it afterwards and there weren’t too many who experienced that sensation.
That pomp stretched from a Supreme triumph in 2004 right through to a couple of placed efforts in the Champion Hurdle, as well as a memorable Champion success here in 2005.
Throw in an AIG and a Hatton’s Grace and there is little or no gap in the old warrior’s CV worth mentioning.
A wonderfully evocative victory in this season’s Irish Champion Hurdle provided a 10th Grade One career success and earned a trip back to Cheltenham where unsurprisingly he finished well out the back.
As swansongs go, especially on the back of an 18-month absence due to injury, Leopardstown in January took some beating but Colm Murphy gives him another go at today’s race, the one in which he was injured two years ago.
Brave Inca’s old ally Tony McCoy is back on board for the first time since finishing runner-up in the 2007 AIG. It will be just the horse’s second attempt at three miles, but Murphy isn’t concerned about the distance.
“I don’t think the trip is an issue at all,” he said yesterday.
“He was also in the two miler on Friday in case it got very, very soft but that doesn’t look like happening.”
At his best Brave Inca would deal with the elements, whatever the distance, but while the role of old hero out for one last hurrah is always attractive, experience usually tells us the up-and-comer is usually the one to be on.
Fiveforthree is hardly an unknown himself, having won at Cheltenham last year, but he returned to action this season only in March when a pop around Wexford set him up for a fine run in the Aintree Hurdle when only narrowly beaten by Solwhit.
This will be his first start at three miles but Ruby Walsh wasn’t anticipating problems on that score yesterday.
“He has won a Ballymore over two miles and five and finished second in an Aintree Hurdle. It is obviously his first try at the trip but he is a half-brother to Celestial Gold who won a Hennessy so he is bred to get the trip,” he said.
A late start to this campaign means Fiveforthree comes here comparatively fresh and he looks the best hope for Willie Mullins who also has Shakervilz.
Three British-trained runners line up trying to emulate Blazing Bailey last year with Fair Along possibly best of the trio, ahead of Petitfour and Duc de Regniere.
