‘He’s a Grade 1 winner, getting better with every start and goes to Cheltenham with a massive chance’

It might be Willie this and Willie that right now, but if there is one Irish trainer capable of ensuring it is not a complete Closutton cartel in the Cotswolds next month, it is Gordon Elliott.

He topped the charts at back-to-back Cheltenham Festivals in 2017 and 2018 and has been the only trainer able to stop Mullins from hitting number one since Nicky Henderson's seven-winner haul in 2012. 

Elliott came away with three winners last year – Jazzy Matty, Delta Work and Sire Du Berlais – but left disappointed. It wasn't that his horses ran badly, just that he hit more crossbars than Darwin Nunez over the course of the week. He was left wondering what might have been had his luck been better.