Champion jockey elect Paul Townend has a great book of rides at next week’s Punchestown Festival but he says the race of the week is likely to be the Ladbrokes Gold Cup which will feature some of the best chasers of the modern era.

Thirteen horses remain in Wednesday's 275,000Euros contest over 3m1f with Willie Mullins responsible for nine of those entries. Outside of Closutton, possible runners are Clan Des Obeaux for Paul Nicholls, 2021 Gold Cup winner Minella Indo, this year's Gold Cup fourth Galvin and recent Aintree winner Fakir D'oudairies.

Townend told journalist Dave Keena; "There's a dual Gold Cup winner (Al Boum Photo), a dual Ryanair winner (Allaho) and a dual King George winner in Clan Des Obeaux who won the race last year. So it’s set up to be a cracking race and it could be the race of the week.

On next week's festival as a whole, the champion jockey added: "It’s a brilliant way to round off the season, that you’ve every good race there and hopefully all the good horses are going to show up and contest them as well."