Annie Power won’t lack for pace, insists Willie Mullins

Willie Mullins is confident Annie Power will not be beaten for a lack of pace when she bids to make it third time lucky at the Cheltenham Festival in today’s Stan James Champion Hurdle.

Having finished runner-up to More Of That in the 2014 World Hurdle over three miles before suffering a well-publicised and heartbreaking final flight exit with the two-and-a-half-mile Mares’ Hurdle at her mercy 12 months ago, the brilliant mare now gets a shot at the two-mile hurdling crown.

With last year’s brilliant winner Faugheen suffering a season-ending injury a month ago, Annie Power was called up as the apparent super-sub and after being supplemented at a cost of £20,000 (€25,700), she bids to become the first mare since Flakey Dove in 1994 to claim Champion Hurdle glory.