Douvan leading the team

Despite having lost Faugheen, Min and Annie Power from his Cheltenham Festival team, owner Rich Ricci still has the hottest favourite of the week in Douvan.

Unbeaten since joining Willie Mullins, Douvan put the finishing touches to his Queen Mother Champion Chase preparations with a flawless display in the Tied Cottage at Punchestown.

"When that happens (injuries) you've got to ask yourself some hard questions. Does this happen to everybody or is it just our run of bad luck?" Ricci blogged for RTE Racing.

"For now we still have plenty to look forward to and I'll be spending the next few weeks trying to figure out with Willie the best races for my horses at Cheltenham.

"Douvan will hopefully lead the team and obviously goes there with a big shout. But there are no shoo-ins at Cheltenham and even though we don't know yet who will take him on, I think for a number of reasons he will face the biggest test of his career there.

"It's the instinct of many that his least impressive performances have been at Cheltenham. That might sound harsh given how impressive he was in the Supreme Novices' and the Arkle, but he has set the bar pretty high with everything he has done.

"I don't know if those arguments are right and whether the track or the likely good ground take a percentage from him, but either way you couldn't be anything but incredibly excited about him lining up next month."