Won 10 times by the Irish since the turn of the century, the raiding party is headed by the highly regarded Min. 

Willie Mullins is confident Annie Power will not be beaten for a lack of pace when she bids to make it third time lucky at the Cheltenham Festival in today’s Stan James Champion Hurdle.

Before heading to Cheltenham, our racing correspondent eyes up the five horses every Festival conversation either begins or ends with.

Annie Power may have been supplemented for the Stan James Champion Hurdle but Nicky Henderson still intends to run all five of his entrants in Tuesday’s feature race.

Sempre Medici justified short-priced favouritism to win the Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park on Saturday.

Sempre Medici is expected to enhance Willie Mullins’ excellent recent record in the Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park on Saturday.

On a high-class card at Gowran Park this afternoon Sempre Medici looks to have the Red Mills Trial Hurdle at his mercy, and will be priced accordingly, while Smashing may be able to continue his fine run of form by taking a tight-looking renewal of the Red Mills Chase.

Willie Mullins has a strong-hand at the five-day stage of the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury with four of the top six in the weights from 31 to stand their ground.

A potentially eventful morning as I’m due to be in Naas but, should that fall to the frost, I could be heading for Warwick, provided, of course, Willie Mullins wants me to do that.

Deciding between riding at Tramore and Cheltenham this afternoon was pretty straight-forward.

The two-mile rated hurdle, which has attracted just three runners, on today’s card at Punchestown looks a match between Identity Thief and Modem, and the former is fancied to make light of the lack of a recent run by landing the spoils for Henry de Bromhead.

The ground wasn’t as slow as I thought it would be yesterday and it had an impact on all my rides, writes Ruby Walsh. 

Faugheen faces a relatively straightforward task in the Queally Group Champion Hurdle at Punchestown this afternoon. 

No More Heroes can gain compensation for his near-miss in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle at Cheltenham by landing this afternoon’s three-mile Grade 1 Novice Hurdle on day two of the Punchestown Festival.

Buiseness Sivola showed a smart change of gear to run out an impressive winner of the REA Grimes Property Consultants Hurdle at Fairyhouse yesterday.

It’s Gold Cup day at Cheltenham but I won’t be disappointed if the forecast rain arrived overnight and continues through the morning as it will suit my mount, Djakadam, writes Ruby Walsh.

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

There are plenty, it seems, who think the bookmakers overreacted to Faugheen’s smooth success at Ascot last Saturday and that having him as the 9-4 favourite for the Champion Hurdle is far too tight.

Rory O’Moore, a real family horse, ran his rivals ragged to land the featured Ticket Sales Online Handicap Hurdle at Cork yesterday.

It’s Punchestown for me over the next two days, with the battle between Hurricane Fly and Jezki in tomorrow’s Morgiana Hurdle likely to prove the big talking point of the weekend.