LONDON: Annie Power atoned for her final fence fall at last year’s Cheltenham Festival by leading from start to finish to win the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday’s opening day of the 2016 edition.

Ridden by Ruby Walsh and trained by the leading jockey’s fellow Irishman Willie Mullins, Annie Power was roared home by enthusiastic supporters at the Prestbury Park course in Cheltenham, south-west England, as she became 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 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 favorite beating second-placed My Tent or Yours by five lengths.

“It’s just spectacular,” Annie Power’s owner, Rich Ricci, told the BBC.

“Sport offers such a chance for redemption, it’s brilliant,” said Ricci who, appropriately for someone of his name, made millions as an investment banker.

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.”