Doom Bar Aintree Hurdle (Grade 1)

IN front of a record opening day crowd, Annie Power ran away with the Grade 1 Doom Bar Aintree Hurdle at Aintree on Thursday. In thrashing My Tent Or Yours by 18 lengths, she took Willie Mullins even closer to Paul Nicholls’ prize money tally for the season and the Co Carlow man ended the day as odds-on favourite to become champion trainer in Britain for the first time.

Annie Power, a 4/9 shot, was even more impressive here than in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. Close up from the start, Ruby Walsh allowed her to stride on from the fifth and she was still on the bit between the last two flights. Pushed out firmly to avoid any repetition of the late mishap at the festival a year ago, she always looked in total control.

My Tent Or Yours has been known to go round here as if on rails but not on ground as soft as this and not over a trip, two and a half miles, which taxes his stamina. Nicky Henderson has done extremely well to get him back but he was leg-weary in the closing stages after chasing the winner from the eighth. It may not be too late for him to start a chasing career. Nicholls Canyon fared best of the rest but was well beaten, while The New One came down at the fifth.

“That was only her second run of the season and I was hoping she’d improve from Cheltenham,” Mullins said of the mare. “We’ll have a look at Punchestown and then consider the continental route. The first day I saw her I thought she was the nearest thing to Dawn Run I’d ever seen, a big mare that can carry weight with lots of gears. She can do anything.”

Ruby Walsh sat motionless on the brilliant eight-year-old and afterwards said: “She is dynamite. Paul (Townend) went a good gallop on Nichols Canyon and I was happy to follow him early on. He was jumping out to his right and I jumped by him at the last with a circuit to go.

“She let fly at one or two and she just has that in her and the tendency to be a bit brave. Between the last two I was afraid to look back, then I heard the commentator saying Annie Power is going clear.

“She is a wonderful mare, she was fantastic at Cheltenham and she was as good today if not better.”

The Punchestown executive will undoubtedly be hoping that Annie Power turns up because she is the sort of horse who puts a thousand or two on the gate irrespective of the betting aspect. She is a leading light in another wonderful National Hunt season.