The 2026 Cheltenham Festival is finally upon us after weeks of build-up to one of the best weeks in the National Hunt calendar and with 28 races over a packed four-day period, the drama will come thick and fast from the off.
And with so many horses, owners, trainers and jockeys trading their stables for Prestbury Park this week, there are storylines galore.
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Minella Study's Cheltenham fairytale?
There are no easy wins at Cheltenham and fairytale triumphs are somewhat hard to come by with the rich often getting richer at one of the most lucrative weeks of the season.
But there is hope, and genuine hope too, that we may well see a real feel-good win with Minella Study in Friday's JCB Triumph Hurdle.
Why is Minella Study, a 7/1 shot such a good story? Well, trainer Adam Nicol and jockey Ryan Mania formed a fruitful working partnership at a friend's wedding.
Mania has since ridden Minella Study to his last two victories, including at the JCB Triumph Trial event when winning by six and a half lengths.
But that relationship came about solely because Mania approached Nicol at jockey Ed Austin's wedding in August 2025 and asked why he didn't get any rides, a conversation he admits came about from a timely bout of Dutch courage.
Fast forward six months and the pair are hoping that Nicol, himself a former jockey, can achieve a rare feat of a first Cheltenham triumph with his first runner.
There is an extra layer to the story too -- Nicol's Northumberland stable is right by Bamburgh Castle and his horses, including Minella Study, regularly train in the castle's shadow on Bamburgh Beach.
Can Sean Bowen finally end his barren run?
Sean Bowen is the top jockey in the National Hunt standings right now. He has 210 winners this season at a strike rate of 24%, more than double that of next best Harry Skelton.
That follows last season when he became Champion Jockey for the first time, with 180 wins, but there is one glaring thing missing from his burgeoning honours list: a Cheltenham winner.
Despite saddling up 52 times, Bowen has never managed to enter the winner's enclosure and the 28-year-old will be desperate to put an end to that this week.
It goes deeper than just Sean himself too, with brothers James riding for Nicky Henderson and Mickey taking over father Peter's yard in Pembrokeshire.
All three have glittering CVs but none have won at Cheltenham. Perhaps this is the year they do.
Sean will have a shot at the big one too, riding Haiti Couleurs, who he took to Welsh Grand National glory, a horse that is trained by Rebecca Curtis, the Bowen brothers' former babysitter.
"I know he has won the Welsh and Irish Nationals," he told the Times.
"But he's not a slow horse, he has the pace to travel well in the Gold Cup and he will be really strong in the finish."
There has not been a Welsh-trained winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup since 1990, so should Bowen and Haiti Couleurs enter the winners' enclosure there, there will be some very emotional scenes there.
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Can Lossiemouth continue recent mares trend?
Since 1927, just eight mares have succeeded in the 95-year running of arguably Cheltenham's second-biggest race: the Champion Hurdle.
However, there has been a recent trend of mares succeeding in Tuesday's feature race, with five coming in the last decade.
More than 20 years since Flakey Dove took the 1994 crown, Annie Power strode to glory in 2016 to put an end to the dry spell.
Epatante then won in 2020 for Nicky Henderson before Cheltenham hero Honeysuckle won consecutive renewals in 2021 and 2022 and Golden Ace capitalised on State Man's final fence collapse a year ago.
Now comes Lossiemouth, who was confirmed to run in the Champion Hurdle and not to pursue a three-peat in the Mares' Hurdle on Sunday.
Willie Mullins is certainly no mug when it comes to Cheltenham -- he has 113 winners after all -- 38 more than next-closest competitor Henderson. He feels that Lossiemouth is ready for the step up in trip to the Champion Hurdle, but can she follow in the footsteps of the victorious mares who have come before her?
Lossiemouth's confirmation in the race has convinced the bookies who have installed her as the narrow favourite over Dan Skelton's The New Lion.
Footballing royalty takes on Cheltenham
Horse racing has traditionally been popular with British sports stars, but it seems to garner particular love from legendary British football managers.
At this year's Festival, Sir Alex Ferguson will provide two runners as he looks to bring his Old Trafford success to Prestbury Park.
Protektorat, winner of the Ryanair Chase in 2024, was due to go again but has been withdrawn.
Il Ridoto will ride in the Kim Muir Challenge Cup on Thursday, though he does come in at odds of 25/1 so is unlikely to provide another winner.
And the big entry of the week for Sir Alex and his syndicate, El Rincon, is L'Eau du Sud, who is set to go off in the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday and is among the favourites, but will have to overcome the odds-on Majborough.
Regent's Stroll also has a good chance in the Jack Richards Novices' Chase, a race in which El Rincon won a year ago with Caldwell Potter.
Sir Alex's syndicate partner Ged Mason has a mixture of excitement and nerves heading into the Festival, particularly around L'Eau du Sud's prospects.
He said: "The nerves start from two weeks out and you're on pins every time your trainer calls because you think it might be the call to say he isn't running - Cheltenham is the holy grail, it's like St Andrews in golf."
Sir Alex is not the only footballing presence at Cheltenham this week though, with Harry Redknapp, the former Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth manager also taking on horse racing ownership upon his retirement from the beautiful game.
He too has had success at Cheltenham, claiming glory with the aptly named Shakem Up'Arry in the 2024 edition of The Sun Racing Plate.
The 79-year-old arrives at Prestbury Park with a genuine Gold Cup hope in The Jukebox Man after his King George VI success at Kempton Park on Boxing Day.
Should he win the big race, Redknapp's success will almost story be the story of the Festival.
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