Baracouda faces battle for hat-trick

Rest of Cheltenham Preview: Best Mate's Gold Cup attempt might be getting more attention but Baracouda is likely to be a red hot favourite to complete his own three-in-a-row in the Bonusprint Stayers' Hurdle.

The popular pre-festival bet of the four champions from 2003 retaining their titles was blown out of the water straight away by Rooster Booster but if Best Mate was a banker for those who did take the initial 20 to 1, then Baracouda was not far behind.

The French superstar has been an exceptional champion but will have to prove his superiority with a vengeance if the treble is to come off.

Ranged against him are Iris's Gift, who ran him so close last year when just a novice, and the teak-tough mare Solerina who attempts to give the Bowe family the remarkable Cheltenham triumph that Limestone Lad so narrowly failed to give them.

Throw in the fast improving Crystal D'Ainay and the mercurial Holy Orders, who could do anything if in the mood, and Baracouda has anything but a walk-over on his hands.

However, if the last two years has taught us anything, then it is that JP McManus's horse can usually catch anything thrown at him.

There is a strong Irish team in the JCB Triumph Hurdle with Noel Meade now relying on Wild Passion after Power Elite's defection. The home team, however, are strongly represented in this with the prolific Trouble At Bay representing the Alan King yard which has already been on the mark at the festival.

Proven on the track and okay on decent ground, Trouble At Bay will be hard to beat but in the build up to the meeting it was hard to ignore Jim Culloty's confidence in the chances of Tusk.

Triumph Hurdle horses are not the first type you think of being in the Henrietta Knight stable but Tusk, who won on fast ground at Newmarket on the flat, has won at Sandown and Kempton in his new career and will certainly not lack for faith from the saddle.

Paul Nicholls might not be the most popular man at Cheltenham after the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle. The trainer has left in Rigmarole which puts well over half the field out of the handicap proper and then there is the real chance that Nicholls could win out with Sporazene. The high-class five-year-old will race off just 10-13 and we know he is better than the eighth to Geos in Newbury's Tote Gold Trophy.

Best of the Irish team in this should be Harchibald who returned to action with a bang at Leopardstown and whose handicap mark looks lenient in comparison with how good he might just be.

The problem is that he is half a stone wrong in this handicap and that could tip things in Sporazene's direction.

Noel Meade has Strong Run in the Grand Annual where Arthur Moore's sole festival runner Fadoudal Du Cochet bids to repeat his 2002 success.

This is a particularly trappy race but on the best of his form St Pirran looks reasonably well treated. Paul Nicholls' charge fell last time at Sandown when well placed and can give Ruby Walsh further success at the festival.

Ted Walsh won the Foxhunters as a jockey on Attitude Adjuster and will go into this year's renewal with real hopes courtesy of the Leopardstown winner Never Compromise. However, there looks to be a serious stumbling block in the shape of the main English hope Lord Atterbury.