Ruby Walsh is a very rare visitor to British racecourses these days but his words still carry weight with the punters and his assessment of Laurina after her successful seasonal debut here on Saturday probably said more than her 48-length winning margin. “She’s unbeaten, so you don’t know where the ceiling is,” he said. “That’s what draws people to racing, that’s what the dream is about.”

Laurina’s canter to victory against a single, hopelessly mismatched opponent was Walsh’s first winner of a British season that started in May, on only his second ride. But he will be a central figure once again in March when the jumps campaign reaches its climax at the Cheltenham Festival, where Walsh has ended the meeting as its leading jockey nine times in the past 11 seasons.

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It moves the markets when Walsh makes his choice from Willie Mullins’s contenders for a big race at the Festival and Laurina, all but confirmed here as his pick from three options in the Champion Hurdle, is now a solid 9-2 second-favourite for the race behind Buveur D’Air, the winner for the past two years.

“She galloped along a bit fresh probably,” Walsh said, “and she was entitled to be [fresh] but I couldn’t slow her down. I realised a long way out that Barry [Geraghty, on his sole opponent] was struggling but the more I tried to slow her down, the keener she was to go faster.

“How far she can go, you’ll never know until she’s beaten. If what seems to be there is there, she could be very good but we won’t know until I give her a kick in the belly. You never know but she leaves the impression that there’s a hell of a lot of horse under there.”

Like Walsh, Mullins has been largely absent from British tracks this season and Laurina was also the trainer’s first winner in the UK in 2018-19, at the fourth attempt.

Asked to compare Laurina with other top-class mares he has trained, including the former Champion Hurdle winner Annie Power and the multiple Festival winner Quevega, Mullins said: “At this stage of her career she must be as good as, if not better than, any of them.” He did add the rider that her unbeaten record is due in part “to the nature of this year [with fast ground], as the other horses have had runs against better competition”.

Despite her relative inexperience, though, Mullins could well send Laurina straight to the Festival without another run. “Cheltenham is the plan and we’ll see if we get another race in between,” he said.

“We would have liked more competition, but winning races is what racing is about. We could possibly get another run and more practice into her but I’m happy. She’s a natural jumper and a good jumper and getting to Cheltenham sound is my priority now.”

Elixir De Nutz, the winner of the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle, is almost certain to go straight to the Supreme Novice Hurdle at the Festival as he attempts to become the fourth consecutive winner of the race to follow up in a Grade One at one of the big spring meetings at Cheltenham and Aintree.

The winner showed grit to battle his way to victory from the front having looked like a sitting target for Grand Sancy as the eventual runner-up moved smoothly towards the leader in the straight. Grand Sancy could not find an extra gear as Elixir De Nutz maintained his gallop, however, and Colin Tizzard’s novice fully deserved his half-length success.

“He jumps his hurdles and he’s away from his hurdles so fast,” Tizzard said, “and if we held him up, I don’t know whether he could do that. That’s the beauty of him, the way he crosses a hurdle and takes a length nearly every time. If he’d folded to the second, no one would have blamed him but he’s a tough old boy.

“I wouldn’t think there’s any chance of him running between now and Cheltenham. He’s had four runs this season so it would be nice to save him for the Festivals later on.”