Cheltenham Festival winners: 4
Three winners last year on Willie Mullins’ so-called second strings, Glens Melody and Wicklow Brave, plus Irish Cavalier for Rebecca Curtis gave Townend a Festival to remember last season having previously only recorded one win when the Arthur Moore-trained What A Charm took the Fred Winter four years earlier. As second jockey to Mullins, expect him to have a very strong book of rides and arguably even the third strongest book of the week after Walsh and Geraghty given that he will be riding for the dominant force of jump racing and pick up spares for top yards on the few occasions when he is not.