Order Of St George makes his first appearance since the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot when he runs in the Comer Group International Irish St Leger Trial at the Curragh on Saturday.

Willie Mullins is keen to see Wicklow Brave defend his crown in the Irish St Leger later in the year after he was just touched off in the Curragh Cup on Sunday.

Tony Martin is already plotting a return to Australia next year after Heartbreak City was agonisingly denied by Almandin in the Emirates Melbourne Cup yesterday.

In-form trainer Harry Fry sees Jolly’s Cracked It’s “love of Ascot” as a major positive ahead of his return to the track for the Ladbroke Handicap Hurdle today.

The first of two great days of racing at Fairyhouse takes place today and, while Willie has a number of runners at the track, I’ll be at Newcastle to ride Wicklow Brave in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle.

Due to the problem I spoke of in this column last week - rain, or, more specifically, the lack of it - we’re still waiting to really get going with our National Hunt horses, but Don Cossack didn’t half throw down an early marker with a brilliant comeback this week at Punchestown.

Today’s Galway Hurdle is an absolutely cracking race.

The Guinness Galway Hurdle is the feature on day four of the Galway Festival and favourite Quick Jack should take a world of beating.

I’ve been to the Melbourne Cup, Breeders’ Cup, Hong Kong International Races and Dubai Carnival — all fantastic festivals in their own right — but none of them top Royal Ascot.

Wicklow Brave proved himself on course for the marathon Queen Alexandra Stakes in Royal Ascot when recording an effortless, odds-on victory in the Bryan MacMahon Amateur Race, yesterday’s finale in Listowel.

Willie Mullins should deliver, on the double, with Wicklow Brave and Laviniad on tomorrow’s flat card in Listowel.

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

An Easter Monday assignment in Cork is next on the agenda for David Marnane’s much-travelled stable star Jamesie and a successful outing could spell a trip to Singapore for the KrisFlyer Sprint.

Chances are that, like the vast majority of those who delve into the sports page for a daily dose of sustenance, your annual digression into the world of horse racing has come and gone in the past week.

Done and dusted with the Cheltenham Festival for another year but what a week it has been! Barring Annie Power tipping up at the last in the mares’ hurdle, it has been fantastic. 

It has rained overnight. This I construe as good news for Djakadam, my Gold Cup fancy. 

Wicklow Brave gave Willie Mullins a magnificent seventh victory at the Festival when springing a 25-1 surprise in the Vincent O’Brien County Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham.

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.

If Sam Twiston-Davies isn’t a star of the future then I’ll eat my hat. Following the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham on Tuesday he was inconsolable, but the young man had little about which to beat himself up.

Faugheen is the latest Willie Mullins-trained youngster to put his huge reputation on the line in the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham today.

The talking is about to end and the meeting we have been waiting for since the start of the season,

I’m a virtual certainty to make it to Cheltenham now, after Willie Mullins decided yesterday I was to take the weekend off.

Someone once defined a pessimist as an informed optimist, and here’s a scribbler who can readily identify with such a description on the lead-in to Cheltenham.

Willie Mullins has left Un De Sceaux in the Stan James Champion Hurdle alongside Hurricane Fly.

When a horse does a number of things wrong through a race and still wins in a canter then you have to sit up and take notice.

I was all set to travel to Sandown today to ride Un de Sceaux in a Listed hurdle, but those plans went west yesterday morning.

Willie Mullins’ Blood Cotil, in the McCarthy Insurance Group Beginners Chase, is easily the most interesting horse on show at Cork this afternoon.

Well, I was all set to be off on my travels again today to ride three horses for Willie Mullins at Sandown, but the meeting was abandoned yesterday afternoon.

The 12-year-old Captain Cee Bee was far too good for his younger rivals in the Grade 2 Friends’ Of Tipperary Hurdle at Tipperary yesterday.

Peter Fahey’s Owega Star produced a fine exhibition of jumping to land the Kevin McManus Beginners Chase at Listowel yesterday.