RACING/LEOPARDSTOWN FESTIVAL:THE ABSENCE of Hurricane Fly in the first running of the retitled Istabraq Festival Hurdle could be just the opportunity for the filly Unaccompanied to graduate to Grade One winning class.
Dermot Weld’s Triumph Hurdle runner-up is the youngest runner in the €85,000 final day festival feature and provides an intriguing cross-code element to a race named after one of the all-time legendary jumpers.
Istabraq, a four-time winner of this Christmas highlight during his illustrious career, will parade before today’s race but even that won’t substitute for the star quality taken out of it by Hurricane Fly’s defection.
After prolonged speculation that the 2011 Horse Of The Year would miss out on another possible seasonal debut, Willie Mullins explained yesterday that he felt Hurricane Fly wasn’t straight enough to do himself justice. He also didn’t rule out giving the horse a racecourse gallop soon.
“He’s fit and well and riding out every day. I told the owners I wasn’t pleased with him and the chances were he wouldn’t run but I would leave him in until making a final decision,” Mullins said.
“I want to get a run into him before Cheltenham. He just wasn’t straight enough for this. He went to the Curragh last week, worked over a mile and a quarter and needed it badly. I’m going to run him when he’s ready and not before,” he added.
As he did when Hurricane Fly missed last month’s Morgiana at Punchestown, Thousand Stars steps into the Mullins breach today and will be fancied to pull off a similar result. The admirable grey dominated from the front in the Morgiana and is rated to do something similar here, but circumstances could be different.
For one thing ground conditions will be better, which in itself will be no trouble to Thousand Stars but combined with Leopardstown’s tighter inside course it means a greater accent on speed.
A horse capable of finishing fourth to Hurricane Fly in a Champion Hurdle is hardly slow but Thousand Stars’ finest hour probably came in last summer’s French Champion Hurdle over three and a quarter miles and it may be dangerous to trade in short odds about him being able to hold off a late-closer around here.
Unaccompanied may be the junior member of this field but one thing she isn’t short of is pace. This is a filly capable of winning an Alleged Stakes on the flat with St Nicholas Abbey well behind her. Reading that form literally is ridiculous but neither should the youngster’s quality be underestimated.
There was an efficiency to the way she bolted up at Naas on her last start that may make her a better value option than the Morgiana runner-up Oscars Well or The Real Article. Unaccompanied’s jockey Paul Townend took yesterday off after feeling sore when riding Hurricane Fly in a morning workout. Hurricane Fly misses out today but Townend can make the most of his absence.
