Cheltenham Festival day four is headlined by the highly-anticipated blue riband race, the Gold Cup.

Just as he has in each of the past two seasons, the nine-year-old will line up off the back of a solitary low-key run at Tramore on New Year’s Day – and Mullins is hoping for the same result on the day that matters most. “We think he’s in a good position,” said the Closutton handler. “Any time Paul (Townend) has ridden him work, he’s been happy with him and I’ve been happy with what I’m seeing as well. We don’t have any negatives at this point, we didn’t have any setbacks.”

“Champ had his wind done, which consequently put us on the back foot,” said Henderson. “We were aiming for the Denman at Newbury, but when the meeting got put back a week, we came up with the wacky idea of running him over two miles in the Game Spirit. We just felt he was going to have an easier race over two miles rather than over three.

“I was hoping we’d see what we saw as my head was on the chopping block for this ridiculous idea if it didn’t work. Thankfully it went well and his jumping at that pace was exceptional. We all came away very happy and he has been fine since.” Follow all the action from an action-packed day four right here: