Tote Win: £1.80 Tote Place: £1.02,1.40
Straight Forecast: £2.21 Exacta: £2.40

Placepot: €16.60, Pool: €0.0

HURRICANE FLY confirmed in no uncertain terms that he has the Indian sign over Solwhit with his most authoritative victory over his old rival to date. There appeared to be a deliberate change of tactics from Charles Byrnes' team who had expressed their doubts that they could beat Hurricane Fly having felt that the Hattons Grace Hurdle (the pair's last meeting) had represented their best chance. The field raced in Indian file with Solwhit racing in third, tracking the favourite, and Davy Russell delayed his challenge until as late as possible. The plan backfired a little as Solwhit was short of room on the inside of Luska Lad at the last but it made no difference to the result as Hurricane Fly had blown away the field in a matter of strides. Solwhit ran on gamely to take a deserved second and is better than the bare result suggests but a clear second best to the winner. Hurricane Fly was promoted to favouritism for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham following what was, arguably, the most impressive performance of his career to date but he has missed the last two Festivals due to injuries. However, this is the first season that Willie Mullins has had a clear run with him and that has enabled Hurricane Fly to produce the level of form that he looked capable of delivering during his novice season and the best may not have been seen of him after ten starts over hurdles. Luska Lad bounced back to form having scoped badly after a disappointing run at Down Royal; he may need to drop down in Grade to regain the winning thread whilst it would be no surprise to see connections have another crack at a longer trip. County Hurdle winner Thousand Stars was hammered by the handicapper for finishing third in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle in April and could be hard to place in the short-term but this was a sufficiently respectable first run of the season. Won In The Dark isn't the force that he once was and he did his cause no favours when pulling hard for his hard for much of the first mile and had no more to offer in the closing stages.