Annie Power on road to recovery and may race before Cheltenham

Annie Power continues to please trainer Willie Mullins in her recovery from a setback.

The talented mare knocked a joint when schooling in preparation for the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse in November.

It had been thought she would have to head straight to the Cheltenham Festival without a run, but Mullins has not completely ruled out the chance of giving her an outing beforehand.

“I’m much happier with Annie Power,” he said. “She’s riding out and she’s recovering as quick as I’d hoped.

“I’m able to bring her forwards a little and hopefully she’ll maintain that and she doesn’t go backwards.

“I’m keeping her comeback as Cheltenham but if we can get a run before that, it would be a bonus.

“At the moment, she’s just going for the mares’ race but now she’s a little more forward and if we get a run into her we’ll see.”

Mullins confirmed that exciting novice Pont Alexandre will skip the busy Christmas racing period.

Mullins will resist the urge to run the chaser in one of the many options over the next few weeks to give him more time to recover after his sparkling return to action at Punchestown.

After nearly 1,000 days off the track since finishing third to The New One in the 2013 Neptune Novices’ Hurdle, he made a flawless chasing debut.

“I don’t want to think about Christmas with Pont Alexandre, I’m going to see how he is,” said Mullins.

“He’d been off for long enough and I think it would be too soon. It was a huge performance after 998 days off, it was only the fifth run of his career and he jumped like a handicap chaser.

“To make his own running around Punchestown, he took it as if it was a schooling day.

“To me, that says a huge amount about his ability. The further he goes the better, he just likes to roll along.”

Exciting filly Jer’s Girl remains on course to take on the boys in the Knight Frank Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Gavin Cromwell’s three-year-old made a smart start to her career over jumps at Limerick in November and was even more impressive when stepped up to listed class at Aintree earlier this month.

The Co Meath-based trainer acknowledges his stable star will face an even harder task over the festive period and is keen to see how she performs before even contemplating a potential trip across the water to Cheltenham in the spring.

“Everything is good and we’re aiming for the Knight Frank on St Stephen’s Day,” said Cromwell.

“She’s in good form and the race in Leopardstown will tell us a lot. We’ll know what we have after that. Soft ground suits her well, so we’ll see what happens.”

Jer’s Girl is a 25-1 shot with William Hill for the Triumph Hurdle in March, while Stan James offer 12/1 about her chances in the inaugural Trull House Stud Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, should connections decide to let her compete against her own sex.

The British Horseracing Authority have announced the result of Saturday’s all-weather bumper at Lingfield has been amended following re-examination of the photo-finish print.

The judge called Mick Channon’s The Blue Bomber as the winner of the Racing Welfare “Junior” Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race by a nose from Jonjo O’Neill’s Quarenta, but was asked by the BHA to reconsider his decision following concerns expressed by connections of the runner-up and members of the general public.

After further consideration of the photo and viewing footage to confirm the positioning of each horse, the judge corrected the placings to declare Quarenta the winner.