The God of bookmaking moves in ways that does punters few favours

“The stats say they won’t all win,” said Ruby Walsh, in his Irish Examiner preview of his four mounts – all favourites — on day one of the Cheltenham Festival, but the meeting’s leading rider went agonisingly close to pulling off a famous four-timer which would have knocked the bookmakers for six.

With confidence high in the Mullins camp, and another successful season at home building expectation for the Festival, punters who had latched onto the stable’s hot-pots were waiting on Annie Power to complete the four-timer.

After Douvan, Un De Sceaux, and Faugheen had justified market leadership in their respective races, greeted by chants of “Ruby, Ruby, Ruby”, the expectant crowd was clearing its collective voice for another rendition until hotpot Annie Power clipped the top of the final hurdle, and went tumbling to the ground in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle.