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.

Willie Mullins described Un De Sceaux as a “once-in-a-lifetime horse” as he confirmed the multiple Grade One-winner’s retirement following injury.

Willie Mullins is excited about the prospect of Al Boum Photo defending his Cheltenham Gold Cup crown three weeks tomorrow, and feels his charge has a “fantastic chance” of successfully doing so. Whilst he acknowledges history is against Joe Donnelly’s gelding, he doesn’t believe this year’s opposition is any tougher than the field he readily took care of in 2019.

With three of the five runners in the Grade 2 Horse & Jockey Hotel Chase, trainer Willie Mullins was a long odds-on chance to land the spoils, and duly saddled the first three home, headed by Real Steel.

With the Christmas festival blitz in the rearview mirror, the focus now turns to a new decade and 2020 promises plenty. Here Darren Norris highlights 10 dates not to be missed

Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott are responsible for nine of the 14 remaining entries in the John Durkan Memorial Chase at Punchestown on Sunday.

A routine day for Ballyhale. Only the opposition was novel.

Last season was a frustrating one for many trainers as they struggled to get their horses to the races due to the quick ground.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s the philosophy Willie Mullins plans to adopt as he plots Al Boum Photo’s Cheltenham Gold Cup defence.

Cork C of I and Harlequins start the long road in pursuit of a place for Munster at the top table of the national league stage with their maiden games in EY Hockey League Division 2 tomorrow.

Who would want to be a handicapper with a horse like Willie Mullins’ Micro Manage around?

There is a great card to get the 2019 Punchestown festival underway and Delta Work can ensure a good start to a long week for punters by taking the Grade 1 Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase.

There are few races of any significance which do not adorn Willie Mullins’ CV and, after yesterday’s Boylesports Irish Grand National, there is one less.

It’s a case of quantity over quality in Britain this afternoon with the bulk of the ITV4 action coming from Musselburgh, where the feature race is the Queen’s Cup Stakes.

For the third time in seven runnings, trainer Willie Mullins took the Suir Valley Chase at Clonmel, and on this occasion it was the Paul Townend-ridden Acapella Bourgeois who prevailed, leading home stable-companions Yorkhill and Polidam.

Was it a good day or a bad day at Cheltenham?

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

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.

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

That was an interesting feature, written by Daragh Ó Conchúir, on trainer Tom Mullins, in last Saturday’s Irish Field.

A year ago, we gave 10 horses to follow for the National Hunt season and it worked out reasonably well, so it makes sense to have another go.

At 28, Patrick Mullins has already overtaken the great Ted Walsh’s haul of winners as an amateur jockey.

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

There are plenty still holding out hope that Faugheen will reproduce his machine days once more in today’s Champion Hurdle, despite his most recent lacklustre efforts at Leopardstown.

There is surely no way Ireland can replicate what was achieved at Cheltenham a year ago.

I don’t think it is any great exaggeration to describe Willie Mullins’ Djakadam as having developed into something of a professional loser.

Vincent Mullins is decking the front garden in maroon and white. He’s the last to do so on this particular stretch of Ardrahan road. There’s a heightened sense of excitement around these parts, what with Jonathan Glynn living next door and all.

Willie Mullins has been second in the Cheltenham Gold Cup six times, writes Brendan O’Brien

It will be a surprise should the somewhat draconian penalties be allowed to stand, writes Pat Keane.

Lost amid the fanfare of the Jockey Club’s recent £45m (€51.6m) facelift of Prestbury Park, with its 6,500-capacity grandstand, new members’ facilities and improved bars, was a fresh expanse of artificial grass about the size of a tennis court just to the left of the jockeys’ weighing room.

It’s been less than a week since a 26ft statue of Pharoah Ramses II, or Ozymandias as the Greeks liked to call him, was rescued from its ignoble resting place beneath a suburban Cairo slum and surrounded by dirty, running water.

Cheltenham this afternoon is an absolute minefield and punters would do well to proceed with extreme caution.

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 really would be the ultimate irony should Willie Mullins finally land the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Djakadam next Friday, writes Pat Keane.

Our writers debate Faugheen’s chances of regaining his title...