Hurricane Fly First Major Cheltenham Festival Casualty

The first main casualty of the 2009 Festival is Hurricane Fly who was lame before the Deloitte Hurdle at Leopardstown earlier this month. His trainer is unable to get him back to full fitness for the March 11th Supreme Novices Hurdle and will hold him back for the Punchestown Festival.

This news will impact many supporters of the horse who would have held ante post bets at much bigger prices than the 4/1 he was when the news broke this afternoon. This leaves the other Willie Mullins contender for the race Cousin Vinny as as the clear favourite with the online bookmakers quickly cutting him to 3/1 favourite, even after his last flight blunder which cost him victory in the Deloitte Hurdle.

Mullins went on to say “We’ve decided not to train him for Cheltenham as he has not made the improvement we had hoped for,” said Mullins on Tuesday afternoon. “We’re going to concentrate on Punchestown with him and while it’s disappointing, the upside is that it will come right as it just needs time.”

Other Cheltenham Festival News

24 Feb 2009	Triumph Hurdle Set Up Nicely For Walkon
23 Feb 2009	Cheltenham Festival Bookmaker Honoured
23 Feb 2009	Ladbrokes World Hurdle Showdown Has Three Main Contenders
22 Feb 2009	Ryanair Chase Race Preview
19 Feb 2009	Real Interest in Conditional Jockeys Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival
19 Feb 2009	58 Still Stand For Triumph Hurdle
19 Feb 2009	What A Friend Could Be Another Winner For Sir Alex in RSA
19 Feb 2009	Nicholls Upbeat About Champion Hurdle Prospects
19 Feb 2009	Master Minded Must Be Festival Banker
18 Feb 2009	Bookies Find it Tough to Split Cousin Vinny and Mikael D’Haguenet For Supreme Novices