It was one of the most dramatic opening days to a Festival in many years, but at the end of a seven-race card, the punters had made hay, the bookies were left standing and Willie Mullins was the King of Cheltenham
Bookmakers were left breathing a huge sigh of relief after the first day of the 2015 Cheltenham Festival after the shocking fall of Annie Power broke up numerous multiple bets and saved the layers a multi-million euro payout.
Power was the fourth leg of a potential Mullins-Ruby Walsh sweep of the big races of the day, and after Douvan, Un De Sceaux and Faugheen all delivered in style it was shaping up to be a savaging of the bookmakers.
And with Annie Power, who went off as a short-priced 4/7 favourite, cruising to victory in the Mares' Hurdle, those fears were about to be realised only for the horse, under next to no pressure at all, to make an
utter mess of the final fence, sending Walsh sprawling to the deck and saving the bookies' bacon.
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Mullins still had plenty to cheer, however, as his second string of jockey Paul Townend and Glens Melody, the horse who trailed in behind the legendary Quevega 12 months ago, held off a determined effort from Polly Peachum to give the Irishman a fourth winner after all.
Amidst the speculation, one theory surfaced that Annie Power may have been misled by the shadow of the fence:
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Earlier in the day, everything had gone to plan for punters, as Faugheen (4/5) led all the way and romped home ahead of Arcade Fire and the grand old man of hurdling, Hurricane Fly, to win the Champion Hurdle, marking the first ever 1-2-3 in the race by an trainer.
Defending champion Jezki never really challenged after being bumped earlier in the race.
'He’s not slow, no one else wanted to make it and I was going to go my fractions not theirs, said Walsh of the front-running effort. 'Willie is a genius and has a great team of staff around him. Faugheen is a wonderful horse. He has jumped better, he missed the second-last.
'It was a massive call not to ride Hurricane Fly. When you see what Hurricane Fly was doing at home, it was a big call to get off him. It was some training performance.'
Mullins added: 'What a team effort. Ruby said he was going to make it and win it. This is beyond our wildest dreams. It’s just too good to be true.'
That made it three out of three for the dynamic duo, who had earlier combined to claim the opener, the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, on Douvan (2/1), and the Arkle Chase with Un De Sceaux (4/6).
Both horses stormed to victory and are already among the market leaders for next year's Festival prizes.
With Mullins sitting out the Ultima Handicap Chase, The Druids Nephew (8/1) won a wide open race in a fashion as impressive as anything that Mullins' trio could manage. It was a first Festival victory for trainer Neil Mulholland and a well-paced ride by Irish jockey Barry Geraghty.
Mullins was finally beaten in the penultimate race of the day, the Toby Balding National Hunt Chase, as the father-son combo with jockey Patrick failed to get up on Perfect Gentleman. The race did yield a fifth Irish triumph of the day, however, with an excellent ride by Jamie Codd guiding Cause of Causes (8/1) to the winning post for Gordon Elliott.
The biggest priced winner of the day came in the last as Irish Cavalier came home at (11/1) to give Townend his second success of the day.
