For the third consecutive year, the fifth time in the last 10 runnings, and a record ninth time in total, the familiar green and gold colours of JP McManus were carried to victory in the Unibet Champion Hurdle.

He’s a winning machine on the brink of equalling a modern-day winning sequence — so why has three-time Cheltenham Festival winner Altior yet to fully capture the public imagination?

It won’t come as a galloping shock should Cheltenham produce results this week that are impossible to explain.

At the 11th hour we switched Klassical Dream back to the Supreme and he’ll be my first ride of the 2019 Cheltenham Festival. We had contemplated going up in trip with him after his win at the Dublin Racing Festival in Leopardstown but with the ground slowing and looking at the opposition – Felix Desjy will more than likely make it a strongly-run race – we thought this would be the right race for him.

Hard to recall a Tuesday card at Cheltenham as difficult as today’s but Benie Des Dieux can be the punters’ pal on the opening day to the 2019 Festival by proving a class apart from her rivals in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle.

The Unibet Champion Hurdle, the headline act on the opening day of the 2019 Cheltenham Festival, pits a hat-trick-seeking champion against a superstar mare as well as a mare with superstar potential

Kayley Woollacott was widowed at 31 when her husband Richard finally lost his long battle with depression last year. She was left with a young daughter, a racing stable and two options. Fight or flight. She chose the former and has dealt the sort of grief that could crush a lesser mortal in a remarkably robust and positive way. She has embraced the legacy of her husband’s death to publicise the need for dialogue on men’s mental health while at the same time raising significant funds for charities working in the field.

Nicky Henderson reports Buveur D’Air to be in tip-top condition as he bids to become the sixth horse to record three successive victories in today’s Unibet Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Buveur D’Air will have to raise his game again if he is to land a record-equalling third consecutive Unibet Champion Hurdle, according to trainer Nicky Henderson.

It would be quite a stretch to suggest Buveur D’air’s eclipse in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton opened the door for would-be takers of his Champion Hurdle crown, but Samcro all but stepped out of the running for that distinction with another disappointing display, this time behind Sharjah in the Grade 1 Ryanair Hurdle on Saturday afternoon in Leopardstown.

With the National Hunt campaign approaching its halfway stage, Colm Greaves assesses the current state of play

With the ground the way it is, this is going to be another quiet weekend for the stable. There was rain due yesterday evening, more today and by tomorrow we could even be thinking we should have had more runners declared but, as it stands, the ground at Fairyhouse and Navan is too dry.

Some say Samcro disappointed at Down Royal, where he was picked off by the fitter Bedrock (Rachael Blackmore), but Kennedy won’t be hanging around today, writes Ruby Walsh

Un De Sceaux was a brilliant winner of last year’s Ryanair Chase and it’ll be a huge surprise if the Willie Mullins-trained 10-year-old fails to retain his crown this afternoon, writes Darren Norris.

Bonnie Tyler was willing to hold out for a hero ’til the end of the night, but the wait has been a bit longer here at Cheltenham.

Yesterday was a great day, a very emotional day, a day that I owe to a lot of people.

Bookmakers were last night running scared of the fit-again Ruby Walsh ahead of the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival.

It’s hard to believe three years have already flown by since AP McCoy powered Uxizandre to an emotional victory in the Ryanair Chase in his final Cheltenham Festival as a jockey.

Colm Greaves peers into his crystal ball in search of tips and talking points for the year ahead

There were many treats over the last four days in Ireland and Britain, but for me the biggest star to emerge was Willie Mullins’ Footpad in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown on Tuesday, writes Pat Keane.

Leopardstown’s Christmas festival had everything, both from Willie Mullins’ point of view, and from the racecourse point of view, writes Ruby Walsh.

In 1999 Westlife were No. 1 at Christmas, Bobbyjo won the National, Meath were All-Ireland football champions, and I spent Christmas with my right leg in a cast, writes Ruby Walsh.

The Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle - the feature race on day three of the Punchestown Festival - was a tale of one jockey who can practically do no wrong this season and another who can barely catch a break this week, writes Darren Norris.

Extending Cheltenham to four days has seriously diluted what’s on offer and it is very much illustrated by this afternoon’s Racing Post Arkle Trophy.

It’s the final day of the Punchestown festival and, hence, the national hunt season, and Kayf Supreme can send punters out on a high by taking the Palmerstown House Pat Taaffe Handicap Chase.

Take a chance on Dermot Weld’s Silver Concorde, each way, getting us off to the perfect start in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham today.

Nicky Henderson can upset Willie Mullins’ bid for a fourth consecutive victory in the Supreme Novices Hurdle, by taking the Festival opener with Buveur D’Air.