How Michael O'Leary set up a blockbuster Cheltenham showdown, the truth about the eye-watering cost of going to the Festival and how to REALLY win big: RACING CONFIDENTIAL

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Praise for Michael O’Leary wouldn’t be a familiar starting point but, in this of all weeks, it is only right to give credit where it is due.

When Gordon Elliott announced on Monday that Brighterdaysahead would be aimed at the Unibet Champion Hurdle, excitement for the Cheltenham Festival suddenly leapt into a new dimension. Sport is nothing without great head-to-heads and we will certainly have one next Tuesday.

O’Leary, the owner of Ryanair, doesn’t give a hoot what people think about him and he has never been in business to win a popularity contest. He has his views, he isn’t for moving and if you don’t like the decisions he makes, he won’t lose any sleep.

He’s tended to operate this way in racing, too. Remember he once took his horses away from Willie Mullins following a dispute over training fees and he churlishly denied Tiger Roll the chance to win three straight Randox Grand Nationals after complaining the gelding was too high in the handicap.

So there were plenty who doubted whether O’Leary and his brother, Eddie, would roll the dice and let Brighterdaysahead take on Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle, even though she had not put a foot wrong all winter and her last performance screamed that she would be a major contender.

Gigginstown Stud, the banner under which O’Leary’s horses run, has a modus operandi to win races, plain and simple. The Mares' Hurdle, run 40 minutes before the Champion, would have been a penalty kick for Brighterdaysahead next week but it would have done nothing for her reputation.

Michael O'Leary has given the green light for his horse Brighterdaysahead to take on Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle next week

Brighterdaysahead has thrived all winter and will now get his shot at Cheltenham glory

Constitution Hill romped to victory in 2023 but there are some doubts over the favourite heading into this year's race

This is where Elliott has played such a key role. He has kept his counsel since the turn of the year, making a conscious decision not to run the six-year-old in the Irish Champion Hurdle so that she would be cherry ripe for Cheltenham.

Brighterdaysahead ran 32 days before the Festival last year and, with hindsight, you wonder whether she was as fresh as she could have been in the Mares' Novice Hurdle, in which she suffered the only defeat of her 10-race career, going down by a length-and-three-quarters to Golden Ace.

Away from the cameras, however, Elliott has been adamant that Brighterdaysahead should run in the big one and try to take on Constitution Hill, the 2023 winner about whom some sceptics still have doubts. If there is a chink in his armour, Elliott is convinced his mare will expose it.

In these situations, a man needs to hold his nerve when having frank discussions with a character such as O’Leary. He wouldn’t be someone who would change tack once he has made a decision, so Elliott was powerful with his persuasiveness.

And, together, they have made the right choice. It doesn’t matter what you think about O’Leary or his trainer; what does matter is that Cheltenham stages races that raise the hairs on the back of your neck. This is what we have now that Brighterdaysahead and Constitution Hill will face off.

Cheltenham's greed problem

Talk is growing about how attendance figures will look at the Festival next week and there is no doubt it will become an issue to be discussed during the meeting.

So many things went wrong 12 months ago, not least the farcical situation when cars were being towed out of sodden parking areas, that there has been an increase in one-time racegoers declaring they would rather spend a week in Benidorm watching the action in a bar than being on course.

Each to their own. There is no getting away from the fact it is expensive to buy a ticket for Cheltenham in the same way it is expensive to go to Lord’s or attend Wimbledon or, perhaps, to go and see Bruce Springsteen on his arena tour this summer.

What doesn’t help, however, when emotions are running high is for someone to make a witless and misguided comment to suggest there is nothing wrong. So step forward Lindsey Holland, representing Cheltenham’s Chamber of Commerce.

‘Hotels weren’t empty because of disgruntled guests,’ she blusters. ‘What we learned from the hoteliers is there’s a band of regulars that come and a camaraderie each year. The uptake of accommodation has been really strong. There weren't any issues with billing last year or this year.’

What gibberish. The Holiday Inn Express in Cheltenham Town Centre is prepared to charge £670 a night (down from £808 per night when Racing Confidential contacted them last August), while the DoubleTree by Hilton is £445 per night.

Do you fancy getting the train from London Paddington on Gold Cup day? Good idea. Great Western Railways want £226.80 for an anytime day return. Believe it or not but an UberX, at the time of writing, is £176.98 to make the same journey in one direction.

Split the bill four ways and you could, potentially, be chauffeured from the capital to the course for a third of the price of a train ticket. Cheltenham has plenty of areas in which it can improve and new chief executive Guy Lavender knows it. He isn’t to blame for the greed of others.

Cars were towed away from boggy Cheltenham car parks last year in farcical scenes

Hotel prices as well as train fares are set to be extortionate for race-goers

Take tips with a pinch of salt

You know Festival week is around the corner when every conversation you have starts: “There’s a strong word for…”

This is all part of the tradition and the thrill, the idea that you have been let in on a secret that is going to come with a lucrative windfall. Around this time 12 months ago, “the word” was that Tullyhill wouldn’t be beaten in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle but he was barely sighted.

So treat everything you hear with a degree of caution but, saying that, it would be remiss not to say that Galvin, trained by Gordon Elliott and owned by Ronnie Bartlett, is getting favourable mentions ahead of his shot at the Cross Country Chase.

Galvin was a good horse in his prime, a winner at the Festival in 2021. The gelding hasn’t won since October 2022 and is now 11 but he doesn’t have many miles on the clock and has been kept fresh since finishing second in the American Grand National last October. He might have a squeak.

Tullyhill was backed to win the Supreme Novices' Hurdle last year but failed to get in the mix

Trainer Gordon Elliott has a chance with Galvin in the Cross Country Chase

Punters should take any tips with a degree of caution ahead of placing bets

Bowen bids to chase down Skelton in David Power Jockeys Cup

The David Power Jockeys Cup has added a new, interesting dimension to the season and the Cheltenham Festival will be pivotal to deciding the outcome. There are 672 points up for grabs next week and, while Harry Skelton is clear at the top, things can change.

Skelton is likely to have winners but it would be fantastic if Sean Bowen, who leads the long established Jockeys' Championship, could get on the scoresheet, too. No jockey has ridden better this winter on this side of the Irish Sea.

If ever a ride summed up his never-say-die attitude it was his performance on Booster Bob in the Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury last weekend. It was absolutely extraordinary and deserves to win the best of the season.