The talk is over and the action about to get underway at the Cheltenham Festival, and I’m hoping for a great start to the meeting as I’m riding four horses, all of which are favourite, writes Ruby Walsh.

The Stan James Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham can prove the next step in Faugheen’s development towards superstardom, writes Tommy Lyons.

I suppose I can say now that I have had a fair idea that I was going to pick Faugheen over Hurricane Fly for the Champion Hurdle for a while.

It is the question I have been bombarded with for months now: Hurricane Fly or Faugheen in the Champion Hurdle?

Ruby’s Best Bets

It is a quite enough weekend but not without some intrigue all the same and some good performances might book a passage to Cheltenham. 

I am probably leaving a winner or two behind me in Gowran, but I learned a long time ago that you can’t be in two places at one time, says Ruby Walsh.

AP McCoy’s announcement that he would be retiring at the end of the season didn’t come as a surprise to me because we are good friends.

Following much soul-searching, I have gone with On His Own in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown tomorrow.

Two rides at Fairyhouse today and four at Punchestown tomorrow make up my weekend, says Ruby Walsh.