You can talk about the Dublin Racing Festival as a springboard to Cheltenham but it has to be so much more than that, particularly in this curious season.

Of course we hope a few horses, especially in the novice categories, emerge to mark themselves down as true strong contenders for Cheltenham but there is plenty to be won here and now and with eight Grade 1 races, two Grade 2 bumpers and five valuable handicaps on ground that might be the softest it will ever be (heavy rain forecast for this Thursday), the stakes are high for DRF mark two.