Cue Card (Colin Tizzard) could bid for a second victory in the £300,000 Grade One Ryanair Chase on the third day of the festival, March 16th.

The 11-year-old ran away with the near two-mile, five-furlong contest in 2013 when thrashing First Lieutenant by nine lengths, and has since established himself as one of Britain's leading staying chasers.

He fell at the third last when going strongly in the 2016 Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup, losing the chance of both glory and the £1 million bonus offered by Jockey Club Racecourses for the Chase Triple Crown.

Cue Card captured his third Group 1 Betfair Chase at Haydock Park in November before chasing home impressive stablemate Thistlecrack in the Group 1 32Red King George VI Chase at Kempton Park over Christmas.

Colin Tizzard's five entries also include French import Alary, who is yet to run for the stable and is entered in the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup like Cue Card, G2 Shloer Chase victor Fox Norton, Sizing Granite and Viconte Du Noyer. The last three also hold entries in the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Willie Mullins accounts for seven of the 18 Irish-trained entries. The septet features hot Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase favourite Douvan, dual Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Djakadam, 2015 Racing Post Arkle Chase victor Un De Sceaux and the star mare Vroum Vroum Mag.

Among Henry de Bromhead's three contenders is Down Royal Group 1 scorer Valseur Lido, runner-up last year when trained by Willie Mullins, while Gordon Elliott has course and distance scorer Empire Of Dirt and Outlander in his three entries. Other possibles include Uxizandre (Alan King), off the course since winning the 2015 Ryanair Chase, French-trained Vezelay (Emmanuel Clayeux FR), third on his British debut in the Betfair Chase, BetVictor Gold Cup scorer Taquin De Seuil (Jonjo O'Neill) and Ar Mad (Gary Moore).

The 48-strong entry represents the joint third-highest level of entries in the history of the Ryanair Chase, founded in 2005.