Banbridge remains an intriguing entry in this year’s Ryanair Chase and trainer Joseph O’Brien has confirmed ‘the plan is to run’.

Winner of the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle at the Festival in 2022, Banbridge embarked on a successful novice chase campaign, winning the Grade 2 Arkle Challenge Trophy Trial during the 2022 November Meeting at Cheltenham. Although he skipped the Festival, the gelding ended the year with a top-level success in the Grade 1 Racehorse Lotto Manifesto Novices' Chase at Aintree.

He returned after a lengthy break with a hard-fought victory over Pic D'Orhy in the Grade 2 Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton Park in January, but would probably prefer a sounder surface than currently anticipated for the Festival.

"There's still a long time to go between now and then, there's lots of racing to happen and lots of weather forecasts that will come and go," said Joseph O'Brien.

"As we've said all along, we'll look forward to the race and hopefully we'll walk the track on the morning of the race and hopefully he can run.

"Very much the plan is to run. He's prepared well for Cheltenham so far."

Whilst O'Brien does not field the largest team for this year's Cheltenham Festival, he holds some intriguing entries including Busselton in the Ultima Handicap Chase and Nurburgring in the Triumph Hurdle.

"Hopefully we'll have something running most of the days, some of them would like the ground a bit softer and some of them would like it a bit quicker," he added.

"At the moment, it looks as if it's going to favour the horses that prefer a bit of juice, but let's see what happens – it can dry out fast and it can get softer quickly too. We'll keep an eye on things over the next week."