• Leopardstown winner hot favourite for opening race
• ‘It was a huge performance – it blew my mind’

Willie Mullins will attempt to become the first Irish trainer since the 1960s to saddle a three-time Gold Cup winner when Galopin Des Champs lines up for the feature race of the Cheltenham festival next month. But the most successful trainer in the history of the meeting nominated Kopek Des Bordes, the warm favourite for the Supreme Novice Hurdle, as his “banker” bet of the week at a media morning at his County Carlow stable here on Wednesday.

Kopek Des Bordes, unbeaten in three starts to date, is already top-priced at just 11-10 for the opening race of the four-day festival, which is often one of the key contests in the battle between punters and bookies as both sides look to start the week on the front foot.