Hurricane Fly to pounce when Cheltenham pulls back covers

An army of groundsmen will start lifting covers off the Cotswolds track at 10am – temperatures were due to plummet to minus six degrees Celsius last night – and they must finish the task by 1.15pm, just 15 minutes before the Festival curtain-raiser.

The Arctic weather and windchill of -11C forced Cheltenham officials to deploy 630 fleece-like covers over the track’s three courses – an area equivalent in size to 45 football pitches.

With temperatures only due to nudge above freezing by midday, officials do not want to lift the covers prematurely – and then see the ground become unraceable ahead of National Hunt racing’s most important four days of the year.

Snow will also have to be cleared but clerk Simon Claisse has not called an inspection. “We’ve looked under the covers and the ground is perfectly raceable, and we can go on with confidence provided nothing unexpected happens,” he said.

The Old Course will be covered again tonight ahead of tomorrow’s Queen Mother Champion Chase. Racing switches to the New Course on Thursday and Friday, which has also been protected from the elements since the weekend.

It is the biggest weather crisis to hit the Festival since high winds saw the second day of the 2008 Festival abandoned.

With already soft ground likely to become even more tacky under the covers, it has prompted many trainers to revise their plans – significantly Malton trainer Malcolm Jefferson has withdrawn Attaglance, last year’s Cheltenham hero, from today’s novice handicap chase because of the glue-like conditions.

The testing going will not help the chances of Countrywide Flame who represents Yorkshire in today’s Stan James Champion Hurdle.

Though he won the JCB Triumph Hurdle 12 months ago, the going was good and played to the strengths of the gelding who will have to produce a career-best performance just to make the frame in a race that features the last three winners of the Champion Hurdle – Rock On Ruby, Hurricane Fly and Binocular.

Of these, it is the credentials of Hurricane Fly that are most appealing. This is a horse that has won 16 out of his 19 races over hurdles, and been placed in the three contests in which he has been defeated.

His only defeat since November 2009 came in last year’s Champion Hurdle when he lost a lacklustre race under jockey Ruby Walsh.

However, Hurricane Fly bounced back to form at Punchestown last April and his three starts this season have all yielded victories at Group One level.

Trained by the record-breaking Irish trainer Willie Mullins, Hurricane Fly was put through his paces at Cheltenham yesterday by Paul Townend, a top jockey in his own right, while Walsh rode stablemate Quevega who will be creating her own piece of Festival history if she wins a fifth successive Mares’ Hurdle this afternoon.

“Everybody has to have an opinion and create an opinion. My opinion is that I love Hurricane Fly,” said Walsh, the most successful rider in Cheltenham history.

“I can’t understand why the bookmakers appear to be all out to get him. I’m delighted to be riding him – I’d hate to be laying him and I think he’ll take all the beating. I love the little horse – I’ve won a Champion Hurdle on him – and his form has been rock solid. He’s had a great season and preparation from the word ‘go’ this year, compared to last year.”

As for Mullins, who was on hand to oversee this crucial final piece of work, he appeared to be far more relaxed than usual ahead of a big race.

“He travelled well, he’s in great form and I’m happy with conditions. I haven’t even looked at the declarations. I’m just happy with how everything has gone with our horse so far,” he said.

“He has had three runs under his belt, he has done everything right and bounced back for every run right compared to last year when we just got one run into him before we went to Cheltenham. We’re very pleased and hopeful at this point.”

The primary concern of Mullins will be exercising his horses this morning – by 7.30am yesterday the going was becoming crusty as a windchill of -11C took hold at Prestbury Park.

Nicky Henderson is represented by 2011 victor Binocular, Barry Geraghty’s mount Grandouet and rank outsider Khyber Kim as he bids for a record sixth success in the race, one more than Great Habton trainer Peter Easterby, who won the race five times.

However the home challenge is, in fact, headed by the Paul Nicholls-trained Zarkandar, with Grand National-winning jockey Daryl Jacob taking over from Walsh.

“He’s a seven-time winner from nine runs, he’s won a Triumph and is unbeaten this year, but Ruby couldn’t get off Hurricane Fly,” said a bullish Nicholls. “But we don’t need Ruby riding him, Daryl won the Triumph on him and gets on very well with him, it’s no problem.”

Yet, while Zarkandar won the Triumph Hurdle for four-year-old juveniles two years ago, Countrywide Flame landed the contest 12 months ago for Malton-based John Quinn.

He proved this shock 33-1 win was no fluke by winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle on his seasonal reappearance when beating Donald McCain’s Cinders And Ashes – another 2012 Festival winner – who reopposes today. But Quinn is realistic. “I’d hope he’d have a position were he was staying on and would have the leaders in their sights turning in. He has to improve but he could.”