She's been well placed Beefy and can do no more than beat what's put in front of her. But she has never faced a genuine Champion Hurdle horse - her main kudos comes from beating Zarkandar twice, but she got weight from him (11lbs at Ascot and 7lbs at Cheltenham) and I don't think I'm being unfair when I say Zarkandar is simply not Champion Hurdle class. Yes, she is 10 from 10, but has only 1 Grade 1 victory to her name, and that from beating a rival rated 141. When she beat Defy Logic last season (and Don Cossack, Moscow Mannon and The Tullow Tank) she was getting weight all round and that's what I mean by being well placed. Mullins is shrewd and has placed her in races where conditions favour her. I would also argue that she is ground dependent and performs best on soft or heavy. The Coral Hurdle was the first time she had met any going with "good" in it and beating Zarkandar 5 lengths in receipt of 11lbs is not enough to win a Champion Hurdle.
Beef, serious question- Do you think the Mullins team would ever protect Hurricane Fly at this stage of his career and force Annie P to avoid a clash with him? Or do you think they would pitch them all in together?
First point should the Fly get turned over tomorrow, or something untoward happen, Annie Power's in the Champion Hurdle. Simples. I obviously hope that doesn't happen though Assuming the Fly shows tomorrow he's still at his usual incredibly high level then I think we must consider the position of Annie Power and in particular the man that pays the bills for her. Rich Ricci. Willies biggest owner and funder of the vast majority of Willie's big French purchases. This guy's spent millions on the game so he's after the big prizes, make no mistake. He wants to win the TOP races, you don't invest that much money for the 'craic'. There's not a hope in a million years that he'd want any part in 'protecting' Hurricane Fly, and it's perhaps naïve to think Rich Ricci would agree to do so! Willie obviously won't risk annoying, or even worse, loosing his biggest owner! That's NOT going to happen, Rich Ricci pays the bills and he will have the final say. If they feel she CAN beat the Fly and therefore win a Champion Hurdle that's where she'll go. Willie isn't ever going to go against, or upset, his biggest owner if that's the route Ricci wants to go. There's one reason and one reason alone that Annie Power wouldn't turn up for a Champion Hurdle and that's because they feel their perhaps shooting for the stars in trying to take down the dual Champion. If it's the case that Willie basically tells them, 'Look we know what we've got. We know what Hurricane Fly can do and what Annie Power can do. We don't feel your mare can beat him. But we feel we can win the World Hurdle. It's up to what where we go.' Then it's over to Mr Ricci what route he chooses. Hopefully the World Hurdle will get strong consideration as that division looks abundantly easier! Hopefully the Fly puts in an authorative display tomorrow to keep Mr Ricci's eye on the World Hurdle! Oddy: the mares allowance will always be there (unless they decide to give her a sex change ) so don't get your point about mares allowances against males?
When Ruby came in he is said to have described AP as "a machine". And as he knows both her and the Fly, you'd have to suppose that his opinion mattered. There is no doubt that Willie has an embarrasment of Richi's (sorry) and I'm sure that even connections are undecided. Personally, I think she would win the World even with a fit BB but I'd be less sure if they sent her to contest the CH. As Oddy points out, she hasn't met the likes of HF, Jez, OC, TNO or Tent - she may well be better than them, but as things stand, she's just a contender with potential. Make no mistake, I rate the mare and have been a supporter since last season, have backed her for the WH and also "to win any race at the festival" but this years Champion Hurdle is a whole lot stronger than many recent renewals. If she did enter, and won, it would be a fantastic achievement, and as Delboy would say, the world is her lobster
She'll only get the 7lbs though in the Champion Hurdle right? Not the 11 she got from Zarkandar. I'm just saying I don't think her form is good enough to win a Champion Hurdle, that she has been cleverly placed to avoid real top class 2 mile hurdlers. She's been mopping up weak races.
Yep, just 7lbs this time. She definitely hasn't been proven yet. The Champion and World will be completely different matters. How will she race if Un De Sceaux turns up?
If Annie Power wins the Champion Hurdle i'll chuck it. The race she should be going for is the Mares Hurdle to be honest, but obviously she wont because they have Quevega, who lets not forget, has proven herself on a level that Annie Power has yet to be tried at, she cant win the Champion and she cant win the world hurdle, she is shaping up to be the lay of the festival wherever she turns up. She wants 2m4 on bottomless ground and while she has been winning easily in bad races this season, she hasnt shown the type of gears that Quevega has. Rich Ricci doesnt seem to buy many bad horses but since Mikael in the Neptune, all his "next wonder horse"'s have been turned over at Cheltenham, and look how Mikael turned out. Decent animal, one paced soft ground mares allowance bully. Just beat Doyle Carte, 6/1 for the hottest Champion Hurdle in the last decade, ill crack the jokes as always.
Why can't Willie gallop them together, giving both jockeys strict instruction that as soon as they can feel that the other horse is superior they ease off on their own mount? As yet Annie has not faced anything of Champion class so we just don't know how good she is. The fact that she hasn't faced them doesn't mean she can't beat them. People were saying the same about Harbinger before the KG at Ascot and look what happened there.
Master you would have to concede that's there's a thin line between winning easily in soft races and being dangerously unexposed... I think that's the intriguing thing about her is that she's winning relatively easily, so we don't know where her limits are. For all your strong believe in The New One the fact remains he's been beaten 3 times in 12 months.
This was just a classic event. I still have a complete video on this. please log in to view this image
