Walsh has a handicap fancy for the Festival

The weights for this year's Cheltenham Festival handicaps will be published later today and Ruby Walsh has pin-pointed one from the powerful Willie Mullins yard to keep a close eye on.

Franco De Port won over hurdles at Auteuil on his only French outing before making a successful start for current connections at Gowran Park in November,

The five-year-old disappointed the following month in the Grade 3 Irish Independent Hurdle won by Soviet Pimpernel at the Limerick Christmas meeting before filling the runner-up spot behind better-fancied stablemate Stormy Ireland in another Grade 3 - the Limestone Lad Hurdle at Naas.

However, the gelding is still held in some regard and Racing TV analyst Walsh, who still rides out at Closutton, said: "He hasn’t had that many runs for us and he’s a second-season novice coming from France, but I think he’ll be worth following in whatever handicap he turns up in at the Festival."

Not surprisingly he nominates Benie Des Dieux on the Racing TV website as Mullins' best chance at the upcoming Festival in the Close Brothers Mares' Hurdle.

"She was very unlucky in the Mares’ Hurdle last year when she clipped the top bar of the final hurdle and fell over.

"She was brilliant in the Galmoy Hurdle on her only start this year and I think she’ll run in the Mares’ Hurdle. I think she’ll be very hard to beat. For me, she’s probably Willie’s best chance of the week."