Brave Inca is a special horse, let nobody try and tell you otherwise.

Before I rode him a couple of weeks ago, I heard a lot of talk about him supposedly being a tough ride. Well, the first time I sat on him was in the parade ring 10 minutes before the race and he was nothing of the sort. He has loads of class, is a great jumper, travels, has pace and fights to the finish. You couldn't ask for anything else in a horse.

If a horse has the class to win a Champion Hurdle, he's not a difficult ride and any professional jockey will adapt to him at the drop of a hat. It's the same with any good horse. When Cuan Na Grai won the Galway Hurdle last year, it was the first time Paddy Flood had sat up on him in his life. Same with Roger Loughran and Far From Trouble in the Galway Plate. Every horse is different and adapting to those differences is what our livelihood is about, so this theory that one as good as Brave Inca could be hard to handle is pure rubbish as far as I'm concerned. He's a straightforward ride who knows where the winning post is and he wants to win.

After I won on him the last day, a lot of people have been putting two and two together with regards to me and him and the Champion Hurdle. The thing is, it's pointless doing that because it's a situation that won't become completely clear for a while yet. Colm Murphy doesn't like making big long-term commitments and is very much of the mind to take each day as it comes. If Tony McCoy is available, then he'll take the ride but nothing has been nailed down yet.

And I think Colm's right in doing it that way. Jump racing is such a precarious sport and the injuries that can happen to not just horses but jockeys too are so numerous that you'd nearly go mad looking even as little as six weeks ahead. Colm has AP riding for him today and that's all that matters for now.

Why worry about the middle of March at the end of January?

The same goes for me. At the minute, I have Asian Maze for that race and Desert Quest is a possibility too. I would love to ride Brave Inca in the Champion Hurdle but whether I'd be able to is another thing. If McCoy has to go on Straw Bear, then there's a hell of a spare there for some man to pick up. But again, why worry about that now?

He's the one everyone has to beat this afternoon, no question. Macs Joy and him have had some fair battles over the past few years but this is Macs Joy's first run of the season and no matter how ready Jessica Harrington has him, training is still training and racing is still racing. Brave Inca has three runs under his belt this season and for him to be beaten by a horse on his first day back from nine months away is very hard to see.

I know some people have a big thing for Jazz Messenger but I think he still has a bit of improving to do before he can be thought of in the same bracket as some of the others in the race. Even though his jumping is a lot better this year and his Christmas Hurdle win was worth picking up, Straw Bear didn't do anything to put it up to him that day and Noble Request is a handicapper. It was a race that was there to be won and Noel Meade went and won it.

But I'm not convinced by him yet in this kind of company. Maybe today will prove me wrong.

Brave Inca's biggest challenge could well come from Hardy Eustace. There's no doubt that he's a better horse in the spring than in the winter but if he turns up, he'll make Brave Inca work for it, just like he made Detroit City work for it at Cheltenham last time out. And now that Iktitaf is going to run, he's another to add to the mix. I know Noel was cagey about the ground but he's in there and will take his chance. Lounaos and Hide The Evidence are both brand new on the scene and both look to have big futures ahead of them. But I'd say if either of them ran into a place today, it would be a massive achievement.

Which leaves Asian Maze. She was a doubt to run all week because we thought the ground might be a bit soft for her but Tom Mullins walked the course on Thursday and was pleased enough with what he found. The last day was a real disappointment with her but if she gets back to her Morgiana form, she'll be right there at the end of what is shaping up to be a monumental race.