RUBY’S ROAR!
Annie Power seals Walsh treble
ANNIE POWER will go for Gold Cup glory if trainer Willie Mullins gets his wish.
No horse has completed the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double since Dawn Run, trained by Mullins’ late father, Paddy, won in 1984 and 1986.
But the eight-year- old could be aimed at the elu- sive double after cracking her Cheltenham bogey in stunning style yesterday.
‘I’d love to do it, (try and emulate Dawn Run) and go down that route. That (the Gold Cup) will be
dis- cussed,’ said Mullins.
Ruby Walsh even compared Annie to Dawn Run. ‘I said I was going to ride her like Dawn Run, buck out and go,’ he said.
The mare followed Hurricane Fly and Faugheen as Champion Hurdle winners saddled by Mullins.
TWELVE months on from her heart-stopping last-hurdle fall, tears turned to cheers for mare Annie Power as she lifted the Stan James Champion Hurdle with a stunning recordbreaking performance.
With wins for stablemates Douvan in the Arkle Novices’ Chase and Vroum Vroum Mag in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle, the opening day of the meeting was once again dominated by Ireland’s champion trainer Willie Mullins.
Annie Power’s exit in the 2015 OLBG Mares’ Hurdle was the fall that burned punters’ accumulator bets, saving bookies £40million. Having landed on her neck, it was also an escape which Mullins claimed, more this record eight winners over these four days, was the highlight of his week.
The 2016 memory will be much sweeter. It was also emotional for jockey Ruby Walsh, who dedicated the win to the seriously ill daughter of Mullins’ vet Tim Brennan.
Also called Annie, her handpainted picture of Annie Power has been pinned to the mares’ stable dooroor during the build-up too the race.
Annie Power’s win in 3min 45.10sec — the fastest ever time — also underlined the incredible strength in depth in the Mullins stable. The fourth mare to win n only ran in the race — her owner Rich Ricci paid a £20,000 late supplementary mentary fee—because stable mates Faugheen and Arctic Fire, the first and second in 2015, were ruled out by injury.
Her success at 5/2 and by fourand-a-half lengths from My Tent Or Yours was a fourth in the race in the last six years for Mullins.
It also had him dreaming about a future Gold Cup bid in an attempt to emulate the feat of his late father Paddy’s super-mare Dawn Run, who won the Champion Hurdle in 1984 and the Gold Cup two years later.
Mullins said: ‘I would love to have a go at it. When I bought Annie Power I thought this is the closest mare I have seen to Dawn Run. She is a big strong mare with speed and stamina. It will be discussed.’
If she had been in any other stable, Annie Power would have contested a Champion Hurdle before yesterday. Back in 2014, she was directed to the three-mile World Hurdle and finished second to today’s RSA Chase favourite More Of That because Mullins had Hurricane Fly as his No 1.
Last year’s OLBG Mares’ Hurdle run was another case of Mullins shuffling a deck of cards stacked with aces. Even then, he did not think he had played the right card.
Annie Power had only run once this season at Punchestown last month after suffering an injury and was only just considered fit enough. Mullins admitted to wondering if he was running the right mare after revealing Vroum Vroum Mag looked better on the gallops.
He said: ‘I thought Annie Power would run well but not did not think she would win like that after the preparation she has had. But Vroum Vroum Mag’s was so good we wondered whether we had supplemented the right mare.’
Mullins might have had that thought more prominently in his mind aas rivals queued up behind front-running Annie Power. But her mixture of speed and stamina kicked in as her rivals dropped away. Nicky Henderson’s My Tent Or Yours, who was second in 22104, was the last to crack under Barry Geraghty on his first run for two years. His owner, JP McManus, said: ‘I thought he would run well, a very talented horse but what a substitute Annie Power is!’
Having set such high standards last year when his four winners on day one also included the 1-2-3 in the Champion Hurdle, it was always going to be a tough act to follow for Mullins but he did have a 1-3 with Nichols Canyon finishing third.
First Britain home, just like in 2015, was The New One, who just lacks a vital gear. That is not a phrase you could use on Douvan, whose seven-length win in the Arkle Chase was ruthlessly clinical. Mullins insists he is one of the best he’s trained and next year could contest the Champion Chase or Gold Cup.
Had Douvan run in the Champion Hurdle, the trainer thinks he would have won that too. Owner Ricci, who enjoyed another memorable day, called him a ‘monster’.
The only negative for Ricci was his announcement that Vautour will run in tomorrow’s Ryanair Chase rather than Friday’s target race, the Gold Cup.