21 star horses who could make the headlines at this week's Cheltenham Festival

The four-day, 28-race Festival, which begins on Tuesday, showcases the best Jumps racing and most of the best Jumps horses in the world. Thousands from this area will either be making their annual pilgrimage to the iconic track or they will be glued to their big screens, laptops or mobiles, watching the action unfold on ITV or Racing TV.

So we have grasped the opportunity to highlight 21 horses capable of stealing the show and making the headlines during Cheltenham week. Strongly fancied favourites and form horses, yes, but also lovable veterans and Festival mainstays. They are NOT tips but stars of the sport admired for their achievements, reputation or potential.

The main focus of this year’s meeting is on the 100th running of the Gold Cup, the blue riband event, with GALOPIN DES CHAMPS gunning for back-to-back victories. But another century could also fall under the spotlight because Galopin’s genius of a handler, Willie Mullins, is just six short of becoming the first trainer to saddle 100 Festival winners.

Astonishingly, Mullins is responsible for 23 per cent of all winners at the meeting in the last ten years. And even more astonishingly, he is responsible for the current favourites in 14 of this week's races – a tally boosted by the shock late defections of hotpots Constitution Hill and Marine Nationale.

Mullins spearheads a typically strong party of Irish raiders this year. Indeed, for the first time in Festival history, there have been more entries from across the Irish Sea than within the UK.

That, of course, reflects the fact that most of the best horses are trained in Ireland, where most of the deep-pocket owners choose to place their charges. But it also reflects the ongoing decline of Jumps racing in the UK and the fact that many trainers and owners, in the face of such powerful opposition, appear to have thrown in the towel.

It has been so depressing to hear a stream of comments this winter along the lines of “we’re going to give Cheltenham a miss” or “we’ll look for something at Aintree instead”. Attitudes in stark contrast, for example, to that of Irish ace Gordon Elliott who, quite rightly, relishes the standard-setting challenge posed by Mullins and hails the Festival as “the best week of the year” and the “be-all and end-all” of the Jumps code.

How refreshing then to hear a rallying-cry from one of the UK’s more up-and-coming and ambitious trainers, Ben Pauling. He recently told the ‘Racing Post’: “There are owners and trainers who think: let’s avoid the Irish. No! This is our festival and we’re going to compete, throw our best darts at it and serve it up to whoever turns up. Otherwise, what’s the point? Whether you like it or not, Cheltenham is the pinnacle of Jumps racing. Everyone should want to be there.”

And so say all of us. Let the games begin!