The 2022 Cheltenham Festival may just be over, but we're already thinking about what will happen at next year's meeting.
Rachael Blackmore was once again the toast of Prestbury Park as she won both the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup, becoming the first woman to do so.
Cork jockey Paul Townend also enjoyed remarkable success, winning five races over the four days, while his boss Willie Mullins had ten winners in total - the same amount as every British trainer combined.
Read more: Rachael Blackmore and Henry de Bromhead reflect on "fantastic" Cheltenham Festival
Here's who we fancy for the 2023 Festival:
Appreciate It - Arkle Chase 12/1
The 2021 Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner was supposed to go over fences this year but was left over hurdles after suffering a setback earlier in the season.
He was well beaten in the Champion Hurdle in his first start of the season and could prove much better novice chasing next term.
Appreciate It won last year's Festival opener by 24 lengths and will be a very exciting recruit to fences.
If he notches up a few wins ahead of next year's Festival, he won't be the colour of 12/1 if running in the Arkle.
Telmesomethinggirl - 10/1 Mares' Hurdle
Telmesomethinggirl was just getting into contention when she was brought down by faller Indefatigable in the Mares' Hurdle.
Henry de Bromhead's mare was sent off at odds of 4/1 for the Grade 1 contest having been the ante-post favourite for the race for quite some time.
More than double that price for next year's renewal looks decent value as nobody can say for sure what would have happened had she not been brought down.
She did win the Mares' Novices' Hurdle last year and you couldn't rule her out going close back at Cheltenham in 12 months' time.
Gaelic Warrior - Ballymore Novices' Hurdle 25/1
Gaelic Warrior was backed off the board ante-post ahead of his first run for Willie Mullins in the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.
After being purchased from France by owner Rich Ricci, connections had planned to keep the four-year-old for next season, but opted to run him here when the British handicapper dropped his French rating by ten from 139 to 129.
He jumped right throughout the Boodles, but was still only beaten a short head by Brazil, and with a full year to work on his jumping, he could be a big player in the Ballymore next March.
Speaking after last Tuesday's race, Mullins said: "He ran a great race and he had every chance. On the whole he jumped well. We would have probably liked a bit more juice in the ground. He is a nice prospect for next season. It didn’t help him how he jumped the last but that is racing. There was only a short head in it."
He added: "I hope there will be plenty of good days with him as he is a real jumping type. We will stay novice hurdling next season as he is still a maiden and he will be back here for the Ballymore next year."
Flooring Porter - Stayers- Hurdle 5/1
One of the stories of last week came in the Stayers' Hurdle when Flooring Porter won the race for the second year in a row under a brilliant front-running ride from Danny Mullins.
It was great for the winning syndicate, who purchased the horse for just €5,000 after seeing an advertisement on Facebook, after they couldn't attend last year's meeting due to Covid-19.
Flooring Porter is only seven and I see absolutely no reason why he can't win a third Stayers' crown next year - and neither does his jockey.
Mullins said after the win: "There's a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and then but he's a relatively young horse, age is on his side and there's every chance he could come back and do it again next year."
- At the time of writing, a €1 accumulator bet on all four selections winning would return €18,017.
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