The Irish Angle: Johnny Ward's best bets for Cheltenham on Tuesday

A winner at the Cheltenham Festival is the same as a winner anywhere else, except it isn't.

A jockey will tell you that, too, but, as a racing fan, there's something unique about punting this week. It's hard to put words to it.

I fell in love with racing as a student in 2003. Out of boredom, I'd started going to the bookies and had never watched the Festival before then.

Barry Geraghty had five winners that year. For some reason I latched onto him, backed a few other winners and life was never the same again. A fiver each-way on a 14-1 chance that finished a remote fourth can be a significant return for an impoverished student at a bar.

Geraghty retired after another five Festival winners in 2020. Perhaps he hadn't changed much in 17 years, whereas yours truly was now going to Cheltenham as a yearly pilgrimage.

We need not emphasise that the 2020 Cheltenham was different in many ways. Last year's was, too, but Cheltenham is nothing without the people who make it special, many of them Irish.

The roar for today's opening Supreme will inspire awe. It's what makes us love this sport. Be lucky.

Irish trainers hardly ever land the Ultima but this year could easily halt that trend as Floueur ticks plenty of boxes.

In the Martin Pipe last year, he made a mountain of ground from two out to finish third. Take a look at where he was in the replay, above at the final flight.

He surely would not have enjoyed three and a half miles on heavy ground last time, yet he still took the eye in third. He's a potential plot for this and makes plenty of appeal given the likelihood of Irish dominance over the course of the week.

Put it this way: you are getting 9-2 about an odds-on 24-length Willie Mullins-trained winner of the Supreme in probably an average Champion Hurdle.

Appreciate It is four from four over hurdles and I'm not overly bothered about his absence, given who trains him.

His time in the Supreme was only marginally slower than Honeysuckle's in the Champion Hurdle last year and she'd have raced on slightly drier ground.

He's a lovely each-way price in a race in which seemingly only three can realistically win. Expect Paul Townend to track Rachael Blackmore before trying to pounce.

No racetrack betting-ring is remotely like it was. Gone and sadly missed are the days when the big bookmakers' opinions dictated markets, when the late Freddie Williams would stare JP McManus in the eye and take him on for what would to some be a lifetime's salary. Even so, "the show" market is utterly compelling here, as Gaelic Warrior is the darkest of dark horses.

HMS Seahorse is far less sexy but very appealing each-way. His maiden form is working out very nicely, plus he can jump better and, being by Galileo, he will certainly enjoy this better ground. He has a cracking attitude and you can get six places each-way.