One-in-a-million star set for return, but which route will he take?

A lot happened to Faugheen last year in a very short space of time. During a campaign that spanned a mere ten weeks and three races, the 2015 Champion Hurdle winner suffered his first defeat, bounced back to trounce the best of the British and then recorded the performance of his career to tee up what looked a routine defence of his Cheltenham crown.

Then he was gone, his season curtailed by a suspensory ligament injury sustained in the run-up to the Festival, leaving his substantial fan club to twiddle their thumbs for ten months.

In the meantime, a story has emerged out of suspicious betting patterns that presaged his removal from the Champion Hurdle betting lists, but even that has done little to douse the Faugheen fever that holds two nations in its grip.