Ireland’s champion trainer reports his pride and joy to be none the worse for his exertions and he is now on course to bid for an historic fifth victory in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown in late January.

“It’s getting to the point with him now where I just let him do the talking,” said Mullins.

“He’s just a fantastic horse with fantastic ability.

“He has won (Champion Hurdle) twice at Cheltenham but maybe because he has disappointed once there it affected his followers, I don’t know. There’s certainly something about Leopardstown that suits him, though.

“He’s just a horse with huge ability but also with a tremendous amount of guts.

“It’s onwards and upwards for the Irish Champion Hurdle next.

“Ruby (Walsh) mentioned that going down to the start he didn’t seem as geed up as normal and I’m not sure why that was, maybe something was too tight, I don’t know but once he got warmed up he was fine.

“He then got a bit of gorse stuck in his girth and that must have been sore, but he obviously ignored that and was very brave.

“That’s just one of those things that happens in races, it’s not an issue now and he came home and ate up well.

“He’s some horse.”

Paddy Power make Hurricane Fly a 4-6 chance to beat his old rival Jezki (6-4) in the BHP Irish Champion Hurdle next month.