Cheltenham Day 1 Odds

Is Sam Twiston Davies set to ride a winner on Day One at Cheltenham?

Willie Mullins has the firm favourite for the Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy and feels Un De Sceaux is well suited to Cheltenham.

The seven-year-old is strongly fancied to land the Grade One contest on day one of the Festival, especially with Mullins' fantastic record at Prestbury Park.

Un De Sceaux then took the Grade One Irish equivalent of the Arkle at Leopardstown on his last run, beating Clarcam at the end of January.

That 15 length victory made it seven wins in eight career starts, with the gelding now looking to win on his dbut on British soil.

When asked about his chances at the Festival, Mullins admitted: "He's an extraordinarily short price, but the punters and the bookmakers have all decided if he stands up he wins. I'm happy to go along with that!

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"He learnt his trade jumping in France and we think that's a great base for chasers. That will stand him in good stead around Cheltenham."

There are some question marks still hanging over Un De Sceaux, who did hit the deck on his fencing dbut at Thurles in November last year.

Although his trainer concedes his style of racing is "very heart-stopping", Mullins is adamant that his charge is not "not mistake-prone" over the jumps.

If the betting is anything to go by, Un De Sceaux's main rival will be Vibrato Valtat, who has won his last three races in impressive manner.

The six-year-old was ridden to success at Warwick by Sam Twiston-Davies last time out, with the same jockey set to be on board on day one of the Festival.

Nicholls is keen to point out that the grey is rated higher than Azertyuiop at this stage of his career and that you can "ride him anyway you like".

The Somerset-based trainer added: "He was struggling with his breathing last year, which was why he was finishing tamely. This year he has turned that around.

"Un De Sceaux has looked awesome when he gets round, but he has fallen once and he might find the Arkle different to the small fields he's been running in."

Two other horses that appear to have an outside chance, going on the betting for the Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy, are Josses Hill and Three Kingdoms.

The Nicky Henderson-trained Josses Hill ran well to finish runner-up to Vautour in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle in last year's Festival.

The seven-year-old has won at Aintree and Doncaster since then, whilst also finishing second in good quality races at Ascot and Kempton.

Henderson has described his charge as a "brilliant jumper" but feels he will have to "pull it all together" to come out on top in Cheltenham's second race on day one.

Meanwhile, Three Kingdoms has won three of his four starts over fences although his last win, at Doncaster in January, was on ground that was Good to Soft, Soft in places.

But trainer John Ferguson feels his six-year-old will go better on better ground and believes he will "give a good account" of himself at the Festival.

Ferguson added: "When he was beaten at Kempton he jumped well but when he won at Doncaster he didn't jump well as he'd lost his confidence schooling at home.

"Since then we've schooled him intensively and I feel his jumping will be a lot slicker."