The Willie Mullins festival team

There is no doubt that the largest Festival team from Ireland will be arriving in the shape of the Willie Mullins team, over the past 10 Festivals, Mullins has 12 individual winners from 144 runners, only drawing a blank in 2003 and 2006.

The last three years have seen scores of 2-3-2, and you would expect Mullins to equal or better that score this year especially with the strength of his team and runners in all of the Championship events.

He has chances on all four days of the Festival but here's one for each day that we think will give Mullins a sporting chance of landing a success on each day of the Festival, although horses like Paul Nicholls Big Buck's will provide major obstacles.

One of the best chances that he has all week is with Quevega in the David Nicholson Mares Hurdle and she will be going for her third win in a row in the race. Best at this time of year, all of her races have been in the spring and she clearly thrives at this time of year. She'll start one of the shortest prices of the week but Quevega gives the Mullins team a solid chance of getting off the mark for the week.

Wednesday won't see him with such a short price runner but in the opening race of the day Some Target will provide an interesting opportunity in the 4M. Some Target stayed 3 1/2M when winning the National Trial at Punchestown at the end of January and the extra half a mile here will see him in even better light. He'll be ridden by the owner's son – Patrick and that will give him every assistance from the saddle.

Moving onto Thursday, the Ryanair looks a Grade 1 lacking in depth this year and that could well offer an opportunity for J'y Vole who finished third in the race last year to gain some compensation for an unlucky run in that race where she ran into trouble in running before finishing strongly up the Cheltenham hill.

The final day of the Festival offers plenty of opportunities for the Mullins yard but in the Gold Cup, Kempes has been the one horse that will have gone under plenty of radars. He won in testing conditions at Leopardstown but has always looked to be a horse suited by better ground and with plenty of doubts about some of the principals the market may well have underestimated his chance and at a double figure price he has the ability to surprise. Paul Nicholls Kauto Star could be the one to beat though.

The Mullins team is a large and strong one for Cheltenham, and one which unlikely to be firing blanks.