Willie Mullins apparently holds all the
aces on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, with ante post
favourites for five of the seven races, two of them odds-on. The Co.
Carlow has farmed the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle since its inauguration in
2008, winning it six years in a row with the extraordinary mare
Quevega, and has every chance of doing so again with Annie Power.
Initially trained by Jim Bolger, the
Shirocco mare has tasted defeat just once in her 12-race career, when
going down by 1½ lengths to More Of That in the Ladbroke World
Hurdle at last year’s Cheltenham Festival. Certainly, she wouldn’t
appear out of place in that race, which is one of the few where
Willie Mullins isn’t strongly represented, this year, so the
decision to run her in this race instead could be highly significant.
As it stands, Annie Power officially
has 7lb and upwards in hand of her rivals, she has won over 2 miles
4½ furlongs on the New Course at Cheltenham and is equally as
effective on the prevailing good to soft going as she is on soft or
heavy. The only negative against her appears to be the fact that
she’s been off the course for 311 days, since winning the Mares’
Champion Hurdle at Punchestown last May, but she won on reappearance
last season and Willie Mullins clearly knows how to ready one for
this race.
Selection: Cheltenham 4.00 Annie Power
to win
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