Notebook continued his unbeaten record over fences with a convincing victory in the Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown.

There’s a brilliant day’s racing to look forward to, with quality racing spread across the 10 meetings which are scheduled to take place in Ireland and Britain.

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.

Last Saturday I went to Haydock to watch Eight And Bob run in a valuable three-mile handicap hurdle, he being owned by the Act D Wagg syndicate of which my wife, Gillian, is a member.

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.

Stay on the good side of these 10 chasers in the months ahead.

This weekend’s national hunt action takes place tomorrow and Willie has five runners to look forward to. He starts with Breaken, a recruit from France, where he ran on the flat three times and once over hurdles.

One of the principle reasons that National Hunt racing is more popular than the flat is that you build relationships with horses that can sustain for years and this was proved again and again this week.

Oh, the up and downs, the highs and lows of national hunt racing. Yesterday had it all for me. It was amazing to win the first race on Klassical Dream and to watch Duc Des Genievres win the second – it was clear the horses were in great order.

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.

Beware The Bear claimed top honours in the Ultima Handicap Chase at Cheltenham.

If you’re determined to win green this week, stick with this trio, says our top tipster Tommy Lyons

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.

For years the hardest place in the world to tip a winner was Cheltenham. For years the hardest place in the world to back a winner was Cheltenham.

You cannot do what this horse has done in such a short time and not be regarded as potentially top class, writes Pat Keane.

I’m in Sandown today for just one ride and it’s one I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It will be my first time riding Laurina in public but I’ve ridden her a fair bit at home and I love the feel she gives you.

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.

Faugheen, Laurina and Benie Des Dieux are among a strong Willie Mullins entry for next month's baroneracing.com Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse.

Willie Mullins confirmed last night that Footpad is likely to head for Aintree after being taken out out of the Ryanair Gold Cup at Fairyhouse.

After the Passchendaele that was my Wednesday, a change of tack is called for, writes Enda McEvoy. Tanks. Poison gas. Creeping barrages. Americans. Whatever it takes.

Ireland's domination of the 2018 Cheltenham Festival reached new heights on St Patrick's Thursday, when trainers from the Emerald Isle saddled the first six winners to wrap up the BetBright Cup from Great Britain with a day to spare.

The admirable Un De Sceaux can run the opposition ragged in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham this afternoon, writes Pat Keane. 

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.

After the highs of Tuesday, I suffered the lows of racing when falling from Al Boum Photo in yesterday’s RSA Chase.