Colm Greaves looks at what we’ll learn on the final day of the Cheltenham Festival.

In doing so, she became the first mare to win the Arkle for 40 years.

A Plus Tard, Frodon and Min are three of 13 horses confirmed for the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on Thursday.

The brilliant Irish mares Honeysuckle and Benie Des Dieux are on course to clash at Cheltenham next week, after both were among confirmations for the Close Brothers Hurdle.

NOTHING for it this week then, with Storm Ciara messing us about big-time, but to look ahead to the Cheltenham Festival in an effort to pinpoint some value.

The 2019 Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown was a bit of a disaster, but last weekend’s two-day renewal emerged relatively unscathed on Sunday evening.

Willie Mullins has had many great days in racing but, as he debriefed the media in a packed winner’s enclosure, it was hard to escape the sense that few meant quite as much to Ireland’s champion trainer as Faugheen’s epic victory in the Flogas Novice Chase on day two of the Dublin Racing Festival.

Talking horses with Darren Norris.

Delta Work, Kemboy and Presenting Percy remain on course to renew rivalry at Leopardstown on Sunday, after all three stood their ground for the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup.

What What did we learn from the Christmas racing period? Lots we already knew, and a few things that we should have known.

Driven clear on the run-in by Patrick Mullins, Sharjah completed back-to-back wins in the Grade 1 Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown.

You don’t have to be any sort of genius to now know Notebook is a very good horse.

Superb racing in Limerick and Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day as their respective four-day festivals get underway, and there is also a good card in Down Royal.

I guess, given his phenomenal success in such a short space of time, there are few days which aren’t good ones at Joseph O’Brien’s Owning Hill yard, but yesterday’s visit to the stables was the morning after a treble on a superb Sunday at Fairyhouse, and all was extremely well with the trainer and his team.

It’s surely a no-brainer to give the on-course bookmakers what they want and help keep them on life support for as long as possible.

The reaction was entirely predictable, with bookmakers and press getting in line to enthuse after the strapping six-year-old made an excellent chasing debut at Galway last Sunday.

When I was in Ascot on Saturday watching the rugby and how disappointing it was after all the hype which surrounded it and the team, it got me thinking and comparing it with our own sport.

LAST weekend offered another illustration of the wealth of young talent inhabiting Irish weigh rooms at the moment.

In the shadows of many of the true giants of the sport of kings, it would be easy for a lifelong racing fan to get lost in the moment of excitement.

The conversation takes place prior to the dreadful news his friend and long-time weigh-room colleague Pat Smullen would need to undergo a further course of chemotherapy following a setback in his recovery from pancreatic cancer.

A health setback means Pat Smullen will be unable to ride in his Champions Race for Cancer Trials Ireland on day two of Longines Irish Champions Weekend.

Early Doors can set the tone for a good day for the green, white and gold colours of owner JP McManus, by taking the Guinness Beginners’ Chase which gets Galway Hurdle day underway at 2pm.

Paul Nicholls is doubly represented intoday’s feature, the thetote.com Galway Plate, and the leading British trainer, who won this race in 2008 with the Ruby Walsh-ridden Oslot, can take the €177,000 winner’s prize with the JP McManus-owned Modus.

Killarney is proving quite the money-spinning track for the Terence O’Brien-trained Lakemilan and, on the opening day of the five-day July festival at the Kerry venue, she picked up her second €50,000 handicap at the course when taking the featured Boylesports Handicap Chase.

A tough and consistent mare, Surrounding made her breakthrough at Group 3 level when landing the Brownstown Stakes for Michael Halford, Ronan Whelan, and the Newell family at Fairyhouse yesterday.

Trethias, whose form includes a defeat of Investec Oaks runner-up Pink Dogwood at the Curragh last year, lived-up to her trainer Jessica Harrington’s expectations when landing the listed Naas Oaks Trial in Naas last night.

Sunday Sovereign was the star turn at Tipperary, the youngster enhancing his reputation with another deeply impressive display.

When Gordon Elliott heard that Michael O’Leary was pulling the plug on the enormously successful Gigginstown House Stud operation, he’d have been forgiven for immediately checking if it was April 1.