It is now less than four weeks to the Cheltenham Festival and -one particularly open affair looks to be the Gold Cup.

There are justifiable hopes that there will be an Irish-trained Gold Cup winner for the third year in succession, but it is hard to pinpoint where that success will come from.

Last year’s hero Sizing John will head back to the scene of his greatest triumph on the back of a rare below par effort at Leopardstown over Christmas.

It was hardly ideal for Killultagh Vic to warm up for the Gold Cup with a fall at Leopardstown earlier this month. However, he showed more than enough throughout that race to suggest that he will be a lively contender for top honours on 16 March.

The miracle horse Edwulf warrants every consideration on the back of his Leopardstown heroics while Our Duke did shape up nicely in that same race only to make a critical error at the second last fence.

A cleaner round of jumping can surely put him in the mix at Cheltenham.

Solid contender

Meanwhile, Road To Respect looks a solid contender on his triumph at Leopardstown over Christmas but he will need to do better still.

A good case can be made for each and everyone of these but from an Irish perspective a significant piece of the puzzle could fall into place at Ascot this weekend as Eddie Harty’s Coney Island makes his second start of the season.

A Grade 1-winning novice chaser last season, he is the most unexposed member of the Gold Cup field with just four outings over fences to his name. Furthermore, when he moved up to three miles as a hurdler he took a notable step forward which gives cause for encouragement.

Trainers' title battle

The domestic action for the next six weeks will play host to another enthralling battle between Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott for the trainer’s title.

Mullins made up huge ground on elliott at Leopardstown at the start of the month but Elliott hit back with two trebles last week that included a €100,000 handicap at Punchestown on Sunday. There are still two and a half months to go this season but once again it looks as though a titanic tussle will go right to the wire at the Punchestown Festival.