Three storylines set to take centre stage at the Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham Festival always produces stories and themes to follow throughout the twists and turns of the week. Here are four crucial stories you can expect to hear plenty of once the tapes drop for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle.

Cheltenham Festival day one: racecard and betting

Britain v Ireland

It has been impossible to escape the Britain v Ireland narrative for this year's Cheltenham Festival ever since the conclusion of last year's 23-5 drubbing.

The Prestbury Cup, which formalises the competition between British and Irish-trained runners, was first introduced in 2014 and commenced with a 15-12 win for Britain. However, times have certainly changed, to the extent you can get no bigger than 1-9 that Ireland wins the competition at this year's festival. Several firms take an even dimmer view, with William Hill, Betfair and Coral offering extremely prohibitive odds of 1-20.

Despite everything indicating the head-to-head tussle is a foregone conclusion, it will still be a pivotal talking point throughout the week. Will Britain get off to a good start on Tuesday with Constitution Hill or Jonbon and Edwardstone? Will Ireland win every race on one of the four days? Will the final score be better or worse than 12 months ago? We will have all the answers come 5.35pm on Friday.

Is Britain set for another pasting? How we see this year's battle playing out (Members' Club)

New champions or successful defences?

Last year's winners of the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase, Stayers' Hurdle and Gold Cup are all set to try and etch their names further into Cheltenham folklore with back-to-back championship wins.

Honeysuckle: bids to win back-to-back Champion HurdlesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Honeysuckle (Champion Hurdle) and Allaho (Ryanair Chase) are strongly fancied to defend their titles on Tuesday and Thursday respectively, while Flooring Porter (Stayers' Hurdle) and Minella Indo (Gold Cup) are towards the top of the market to make it two in a row.

The outlier is Champion Chase heroine Put The Kettle On, who faces new, stiff competition in the shape of Shishkin and Energumene and more familiar foes in Nube Negra and Chacun Pour Soi. She is 20-1 – a price her part-owner John Dermody described as "a bit mad" last week – to join the likes of Hilly Way, Master Minded and Altior on multiple wins in the race.

It is unlikely all five will successfully defend their titles and new contenders will be looking to join the illustrious list of champions. Appreciate It may pose the biggest threat to Honeysuckle, while Irish Gold Cup victor Conflated is a new challenger to Allaho's middle-distance dominance.

Thyme Hill, Klassical Dream, Champ and a resurgent Paisley Park head a long list of dangers to Flooring Porter in the Stayers', while Minella Indo's stablemate A Plus Tard will be bidding to get revenge for last year's reversal. Galvin, Protektorat and two-time winner Al Boum Photo are others in contention.

Who will win the 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup based on previous trends?

Elliott's return

Gordon Elliott's enforced absence from the festival 12 months ago will attract plenty of headlines going into the meeting and his influence on proceedings could well steal them throughout the week too.

Gordon Elliott: set to be represented by his biggest ever festival teamCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Elliott is set to take his biggest ever team to Cheltenham and he, rather than British trainers, may present the biggest challenge to last season's dominant pair, Willie Mullins and Henry de Bromhead.

The Cullentra House trainer will field Grade 1 winner Mighty Potter as his first runner of the week in the Supreme, but the likes of Riviere D'Etel, Teahupoo, Queens Brook, Run Wild Fred, Tiger Roll, Ginto and Galvin ensure Elliott's team will play a prominent role in plenty of the other 27 races too.

Read more on the 2022 Cheltenham Festival:

Cheltenham going: watering ruled out on Old course after another 4mm of rainfall

Confirmed runners and riders for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham on Tuesday

Constitution Hill takes on Jonbon and Dysart Dynamo in Supreme Novices' Hurdle

Which trainers are hot - and who's not - ahead of the 2022 Cheltenham Festival

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