Ruby Walsh: The trainer's boulevard of broken dreams

Willie will be tipping his trilby and saying 'Ah, how are you?', Henry will repeat 'Sure, look, it's great to be here', and Gordon will tell us 'You know yourself'

CALM BEFORE STORM: Henry de Bromhead with Honeysuckle. "For all Henry got right last year, he made one mistake: he didn't run enough horses at Cheltenham," believes Ruby Walsh.

THE key to a jockey's success this week will be inextricably linked to the yard they are riding for. Any rider is only as good as the horse they are riding, but the form of those horses is vital to winning any day, anywhere.

Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins are the most successful trainers in Festival history. They have developed a canny knack of peaking horses at this stage of the season, but they are not alone here because both Gordon Elliott and Henry De Bromhead have figured it out too.