Racehorse Annie Power atoned for her final fence fall at last year’s Cheltenham Festival with a storming Champion Hurdle win as the same rider, trainer and owner combination clinched three victories on the opening day of Cheltenham 2016.  
Ridden by Ruby Walsh and trained by the leading jockey’s fellow Irishman Willie Mullins, Annie Power, owned by American banker Rich Ricci, was roared home by enthusiastic supporters at the idyllic Prestbury Park course in Cheltenham, south-west England.
She led the field from start to finish to become the first mare to win the Champion Hurdle in 22 years.
At last year’s Festival, the leading jumps meeting of the English horse-racing season, Annie Power had had the separate Mares’ Hurdle at her mercy only to fall at the last fence.
That would have been the fourth win on the first day for Mullins, and Annie Power’s fall was estimated to have saved bookmakers a £50 million ($72 million) payout.
But Annie Power never looked in any danger of repeating that error as she became the first mare (female horse) to win the Champion Hurdle since Flakey Dove back in 1994, with Tuesday’s 5/2 favourite beating second-placed My Tent or Yours by five lengths.
“It’s just spectacular,” Annie Power’s owner, Rich Ricci, told the BBC as the horse had only entered the race last month after reigning Champion Hurdler Faugheen pulled out through injury.
“Sport offers such a chance for redemption, it’s brilliant,” said Ricci.
Meanwhile Mullins, who had a record eight winners at last year’s Festival, said: “That’s what racing is about. I thought it was fantastic, a superb performance from the mare.  
“It was Ruby’s plan (to lead from the front) and he told me what he was going to do and he did it.”
Walsh was also aboard the Mullins-trained Douvan and Vroum Vroum Mag as Ricci’s colours carried to victory in both Cheltenham’s Arkle Trophy and Mares’ Hurdle races respectively.  
David Williams, of leading British firm Ladbrokes, reckoned the betting industry has lost £8 million as a result of the Walsh/Mullins/Ricci treble, with only the defeat of the trio’s Min in the opening Supreme Novices Hurdle preventing a bigger payout.
“It all went right for punters after that,” said Williams. “We can’t stop moving trains and there was nothing we could do to stop the Ruby onslaught.
“Last year Annie Power got us out of jail but this year it feels like she’s put us firmly in the slammer.”