Hurricane Fly makes his eagerly-awaited seasonal reappearance in Sunday’s Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown where he will face four rivals.
Trained by Willie Mullins, the son of Montjeu won five successive Grade Ones last season including the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
He will be having his first outing since successful at Punchestown last May.
The Irish champion trainer also runs the admirable Thousand Stars, winner of the Morgiana Hurdle earlier this term.
Thousand Stars could, however, finish only second to Dermot Weld’s smart filly Unaccompanied in the Festival Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas.
Oscars Well is without a win in three starts this season but Jessica Harrington will be hoping to see more from last season’s smart novice.
The field is completed by the Sabrina Harty-trained Kalann.
While believing Hurricane Fly will benefit from the outing, Mullins has taken plenty of heart from a racecourse workout on January 5.
“Everything has gone fine this week so he’s ready to run,” Mullins said.
“He did a lovely bit of work in Leopardstown and all his work after that has been good.
“This is probably one of his stiffest tests for his first run, but he likes Leopardstown and he’s been giving us all the right signs, so we just hope he can transfer that on race day.
“He will have to improve (for the run). It would be very hard to bring the likes of him to Cheltenham without a run.
“This fellow is a Montjeu and he gets a bit wired up. A run and a big day out at a race meeting is probably essential.”
Weld is cautiously optimistic about Unaccompanied’s chances of lowering the colours of Hurricane Fly.
“She will be trained for the day and I’ll be satisfied if she gets placed,” he said.
“I do think that it is very ambitious to think that she can beat Hurricane Fly, but she is a good, improving mare and I think the best is yet to come from her.”