Fergus Wilson?

Lads,
Annie Power is entered in 2 races over Xmas,the 3m race you mention and the Ryanair Hurdle over 2m.
Where did you see that the 3m race is the stated target??
Cant find any info on SL or RP websites.

Probably not mate,be nice to see though.
Really want to see her in a top 2m race,wonder if I ever will??

Mullins certainly said recently that the 3 miler is her Christmas aim, though I can't remember where I saw that.

Quick run down of things I’ve noted about Champion Hurdle.

Our Conor has some bad vibes about for him and I’d need to see him put up a performance against a Jezki or Fly in the next 6 or 7 weeks to get a grip on him.

TNO is not my kind of horse for a Champion hurdle and not convinced at all by what he’s beaten or what he’s lost to. Needs to show more. But he is young and improving and he is certainly one capable of winning this.

The three I think are at head of affairs for me right now are Hurricane Fly, My Tent or Yours and Jezki.

Fly is just awesome, and we assume he’s on a downward spiral because of age etc.. but until I see it in his next 2 runs at Leopardstown then I will reserve judgement on him. We all know how much he needs his first run of the season, 3 times he’s run in that Morgiana Hurdle he’s lost once and come close to losing the next two times. Not to mention when he won fto in his novice days he just got up against Donnas Palm. Should be fav

My Tent or Yours would be next as he had a nice reappearance win at Newcastle but beat very little in reality. If he learns to settle better this season I think he’s got enough raw talent to win a Champion Hurdle. My slight worry is if he fills out too much and loses some of that speed and hurdling fluency as he is one who could make a top class 2m chaser.

Jezki, having rewatched all of his career runs last night it’s clear as day he is much better going left handed, he jumped left at both the last hurdles at Punchestown the last day. He did show he has stamina and only being a 5yo he is open to plenty of improvement and I think we’ll see it at Leopardstown.

Having read a lot of what Mullins says, in interviews and in particular the two times he was at the Cheltenham Preview at Leopardstown in recent years. He explained his reasoning for his indecision on a horses target for Cheltenham. He wants to place them so as to maximise his chances of winners.

The Boston Bob Neptune/Albert Bartlett one was particularily insightful, he wanted to pick the easier race for him and avoiding Simonsig who had himself yet to commit to Neptune over Supreme.

So armed with the knowledge that he wanted to keep all his best novices apart you can place Faugheen in Neptune & Briar Hill in the AB. That is unless there is an injury. If Briar got injured Faugheen could possibly step up to 3m if he had learnt to settle and Moyle Park could move into the Neptune for example.

It's not an exact science.

I think faugheen started the season as their AB horse hence the 2m 6f introduction, but he has shown a high cruising speed at the end of his races, definitely has gears and  a drop in trip was inevitable and sure to suit. I think he,s special

regarding  briar hills jumping, I cant wait to see him jump a fence and im already thinking about the 2015 festival with this one...

First bet in this race for me today, The New One @ 5/1 special double price. Satisfactory win today i thought. Onwards and upwards though i do rate My Tent of Yours as better than him and just waiting for the right moment to add him into my book.

On WFA terms he was carrying 4lb more than AP and Zark had the blinkers on today, though that is something which is hard to quantify the effect of.

An odd race and the presence of Jumps Road so close to the principals poses a few questions. He might even have asked a few himself if he'd not got stopped in his run. The sort of race whereby, if you fancied TNO beforehand, you still will now, but, if you didn't, nothing happened there to change your mind. Frustratingly inconclusive.

TNO in my opinion prefers the old course, where he won the neptune last season. This new course they raced on today would def have suited Zark better and i think he did it well! I was glad i had took the 5/1 on the double after the race anyways. Hopeful, not confident!

Cyclops has got summed it up perfectly. The race told us nothing. Zarkandar didn't seem to run to form, the proximity of the no hopers tells us this. We can theorise that The New One had plenty left, but we don't know for sure.

Chief Dan, where does the theory that TNO needs a strong pace come from? I don't believe he has ever come across a race at championship pace yet. Today was slowly run for a 2m Grade 1; his Neptune was ran very steadily until two out, when they all sprinted and he outpaced them all. I think I'd fancy him more if I thought there was going to be a false pace.

having just watched the race

he cruised up, got to the lead far too soon, hurdled the last idling then having nearly got headed powered away

impressed even more than I have been.

jumped the first like it was a novice chase and agree with cv byrne he  will be a chaser one day

I was very happy with The New One, yesterday.

Difficult to know exactly what to make of the International, although even as a big TNO supporter I wish he would pick his legs up a bit more at the hurdles. Clearly quite an engine, he looked to be set for a 10L win until the last where he put in a poor(ish) leap. I would be more excited about the way he picked up than anything. What I did take from it is the position of the last hurdle in the CH could be quite important to his chances. Depending on how far from the finish it is this would either benefit or hinder him. You can only beat whats put in front of you.

On the subject of zark for a moment, you've got to wonder what they are playing at, were they trying to do TNO for speed or something, it tells you all you need to know about the pace they set when jumps road is still there, I don't think they know what they're doing with him at the moment.

Is he a WH horse or what, they seemed to have been more tempted by the pot rather than mapping out a proper WH route for him.

Would agree with Sint - very easy money. PFN not stupid. Did not have a hard race either. Time was very slow. All race shows is that TNO may have hurdling problems when asked to go at championship pace and that he has a nice turn of foot.

His turn of foot should not be underestimated though Arkle. Slow or fast past, he'll quicken at the end of it.

Now that we've seen all but Our Conor, Annie Power is the one who has impressed me the most so far this season.

I think she dispatched Zarkandar better than TNO, despite TNO beating him by 6l and Annie Power 5l.  I understand the "will she, won't she" debate of whether she'll run, but 12/1 NRFB is a great price imo.  I know she was getting weight against Zark, but she'll be getting that same allowance in the Champion.

She is effectively rated 169 with the weight she'll get, where TNO is 167 and MTOY 160.  Despite me saying that, I don't take too much notice of stuff like that, but she is younger than MTOY and the same age as TNO, so she is still open to the same amount of improvement as them.

I can see her going over longer trips in the future, but she is still only 5 (until New Years Day), and I'm not sure that they'll be wanting to send her over 3m at Championship pace in the WH, when she would have only just turned 6.

For me, it will be Champion or nothing for her.  They won't put her up against Quevega imo, and for the reasons said above, I think they'll miss the WH.

Very true, SYT, so I would only back her NRFB. I think its worth the risk for the current price.

If she doesn't run I'll jump lump all my stake in Quevega :-)