Like a lot of races at the Cheltenham Festival trainer Willie Mullins holds the key with the top two in the betting here. BALLYBURN was an awesome winner of the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle at last year’s Cheltenham Festival and he backed that up following up at Punchestown. He was always going to go over fences this season and jumped well en route to making all on chase debut at Punchestown back in November. A combination of faster ground and 2 miles seemed to catch him out at Kempton but I didn’t see that run as bad as some. He bumped into Sir Gino who looks a monster himself and the trip was just way too sharp. Back up in distance he looked much better at Leopardstown last month and I loved how good he looked away from the last. He will be spot on for this now and is hard to oppose.

I expect him to relish stretching out beyond 3 miles for the first time and I see him as a future Gold Cup contender (for which he is a 12/1 chance best price). Stablemate Dancing City is a nice horse himself but he would need the ground much softer to have a chance. The pair have met before albeit in a bumper at Punchestown where Ballyburn was 6 lengths too strong. Obviously you can’t take that literally but Ballyburn does seem to hold a class-edge on his stablemate. Better Days Ahead shouldn’t be discounted either as he was beaten a head by Croke Park and that form ties in with Ballyburn albeit he would be held on that. I think however you break this down there is only one winner and I think it’ll be by a wide margin as well.