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I was toying with Vinndication for sometime, but I’ve decided to throw him into the mix despite the weights. I’ve always been a massive fan of this horse, and was pretty disappointed with the run at Cheltenham last season.

However, there was clearly something amiss with wind surery being carried out in April. He returned to the track in November, and was fantastic in a big field. The seven-year-old showed all the promise he had when beating the likes of Champ and Western Ryder in 2018, obviously against lessor opposition.

Regal Encore came second on that occasion and has since won, Black Corton was third who finished second to Mister Malarky in February and On The Blind Side was fourth who has since won.

This won’t be a popular tip because of the trends and the weights, however, if that wind surgery has corrected a few issues then this is a serious horse. It was only last season he went off 11/8 favourite against Lostintranslation and Defi Du Seuil.

La Bague Au Roi is the main danger for me (if runs).

As you’ll notice I’ve opted to go with horses coming into the Festival in good form rather than trying to angle at a plot job angle. Protektorat is sure to give you a good ride in a race where plenty have a decent chance. Dame De Compagnie and Canardier both have very good chances.

However, Protektorat has caught the eye on plenty of occasions this season, despite not landing a victory until January. He ran second to Keen On in November, the form out of that race has worked out pretty well. The five-year-old then finished second to Mack The Man, Mack The Man would have been close before falling at Newbury. He then went onto score against Imperial Alcazar, who has since gone to win at Leicester. Last time out, he gave weight to Harry Senior and King Roland, and finished behind that pair.

Dan Skelton’s charge seems to be improving with every run, and has the added bonus of running at Cheltenham, running in a big field and will also be fairly fresh. Has every chance of winning, and should place.

Fitzhenry still has plenty of entries at the Festival, so make sure you opt with a NRNB bookmaker. However, if Fitzhenry was to turn up here, I think he has every chance of landing Paul Nolan a Cheltenham winner.

Fitzhenry had a pretty good start to the season with three places in late 2019, which included a second to Chris’s Dream at Navan. There were plenty of good horses finishing in behind on that occasion. He followed that run up with a second to Roaring Bull at Leopardstown. Fitzhenry stayed on to take the lead and looked the likely winner before being pipped on the line (you will have heard the commentary).

His last run was a 13th place finish in Ireland, he was cruising through the race but was badly hampered by a faller. It’s difficult to say where he would have finished, but he had every chance.

He’ll like the ground at Cheltenham and will be finishing very strongly. At The Acorn is the danger, this could go off really short, look at the last race and you’ll see why.

Shrewder punters will have got a much better price on Aramon, but at 14/1 he still represents good value in the County Handicap Hurdle.

Willie Mullins' horse has been running in very good company in Ireland, on the two starts this season he’s finished fifth and fourth. Last time out he ran a pretty decent effort in the PCI Irish Champion Hurdle, in which Honeysuckle ran out the narrow leader to Darver Star. Aramon finshed between Supasundae and Sharjah, so company that holds a lot of respect.

He returned back to the track the race before, and finished a distant fourth but still some way ahead of Klassical Dream.

This horse just looks a class above this field, Aramon lost narrowly to Klassical Dream before the latter won at Cheltenham (Aramon finished sixth in the Supreme). He also finished second to talented Felix Desjy at Aintree last April.

There’s no worries about the mark, and given the background to this horse you’ll probably see a fair bit of support in the coming days.