Cheltenham Festival: Henry de Bromhead stable tour

Henry de Bromhead admits the excitement is really starting to build for the Cheltenham Festival as he puts the finishing touches to the preparations of defending champions Honeysuckle and Minella Indo.

The pair triumphed in the Unibet Champion Hurdle and Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup respectively last year, and Honeysuckle is a particularly hot favourite for Tuesday's feature event, in which she will try to extend her unbeaten run to 15.

The eight-year-old added a third Irish Champion Hurdle to her tally at Leopardstown last month – a 10th Grade One triumph overall – after connections briefly flirted with the idea of embarking over fences this term.

De Bromhead is pleased owner Kenny Alexander opted to stick to hurdles and is anticipating a stern examination for the first lady of jumps racing next week.

He said: "Obviously we had to discuss whether she should go chasing at the beginning of the season, but I think Honey made the decision for us and we were all happy to stay over hurdles.

"Once we’d decided to do that, we took the view that 'if it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it’ and we stuck with the same route as last year. Touch wood, it’s gone well so far.

"It looks a very good race, as you’d expect with any Champion Hurdle. I thought last year’s looked very good as well."

Minella Indo’s chances of retaining his title are not quite so clear cut after a mixed campaign, pulling up in the King George VI Chase before returning to something like his usual form in the Irish Gold Cup.

He fended off the challenge of A Plus Tard to triumph at Prestbury Park last year and his stablemate is favourite this year after a demolition job in the Betfair Chase at Haydock before a narrow defeat at the hands of the reopposing Galvin in the Savills