THE Cheltenham Festival is now less than two months away, and qualification for the Foxhunters, one of the showpiece races in the hunter chase calendar on both sides of the Irish Sea, will be coming to the fore in the thoughts of many handlers here.

Competition to not only get a horse qualified, but also to ensure that the horse features among the maximum field of 24 is as intense as ever, if last year’s renewal is anything to go by.