Things have not gone to plan for the reigning Gold Cup champion A Plus Tard this season, but Henry de Bromhead is confident he has the nine-year-old as good as he can before going back to defend his title on Friday.

The Cheveley Park-owned chaser was pulled up on his seasonal debut in the Betfair Chase at Haydock before missing his intended run in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas.

It all means that he has any amount of questions to answer on his return to Cheltenham but he hasn’t been underestimated by bookmakers, who have him as third favourite behind Galopin Des Champs.

“The season hasn’t gone according to plan for A Plus Tard, in fairness,” de Bromhead admitted last week.

“I can’t tell you how happy we were with him going to Haydock, but he just wasn’t right and we think and hope we found the reason.

“We thought we had him back right again going into Christmas and then he got this knock on the day of the race, which was really frustrating, but sometimes these things happen for a reason.

“You would love to have had another run under his belt, but we didn’t and we’re well able to get him ready and all I can tell you is he’s mighty now and we’ll try to get him there as good as we can.”

Memorable win

A win for A Plus Tard could be one of the great Cheltenham stories, given the pain de Bromhead and his family have suffered since the tragic death of son Jack last September.

The Cheltenham crowd has always been a sporting one and needs no invitation to get behind a cause. De Bromhead should feel that goodwill this week. He also has Minella Indo, the 2021 winner, going back for the race, who is not without his chance.

On Thursday, he has Magical Zoe in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, which this year has been renamed by sponsors Ryanair in memory of Jack.

She is no forlorn hope either, having won a Grade 3 contest at Down Royal earlier in the season, and the form of that race has worked out very well in the meantime.