Fergal O’Brien is expected to send five or six horses from his Guiting Power stable to Cheltenham next week.

So says his business partner and racehorse owner Chris Coley who spoke to The Local Answer yesterday.

This year’s Cheltenham Festival gets under way a week today and while Coley expects to be at Prestbury Park on each of the four days, it’s fair to say the one he is most looking forward to is Wednesday 13th March.

That’s because that’s when Jarveys Plate, the horse trained by O’Brien and owned by the Yes No Wait Sorries syndicate which is headed by Cheltenham-based Coley, is set to run.

He’s expected to go in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle over two miles, five furlongs and, currently rated by the bookies at around 25-1, Coley reckons he’s a good each-way bet.

“It’s the same distance that he won over at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day,” said Coley. “He didn’t go so well in a subsequent run at Cheltenham, his blood wasn’t right, but god willing he’s okay.”

And the conditions look set to suit him.

“He likes good to soft ground,” continued Coley, “and it looks like that’s what we’re going to get. There’s more rain forecast this week and they’ve been watering the course, the conditions should be ideal.”

Coley has owned racehorses for 20 years but has never had a winner at the Festival – his best is a fourth-placed finish with Amber Brook in the mares’ race six or seven years ago – so how special would it be to have a winner at the greatest jumps meeting in the world?

“It would be better than special,” he said. “It’s what dreams are made of, it would be a dream come true.”

O’Brien, like Coley, is still looking for that first Festival winner.

He has had a couple of places in the past couple of years so is getting close and Cap Soleil, who finished second in the David Nicholson Mares’ Race last year, is lined up for the same race this year.

“That was a brilliant run,” said Coley. “She’s not run this season – we’d have liked to have got a run in her – but she’s set to run again next week.”

Rated at around 25-1, she hasn’t competed since that run at Cheltenham last March which is in contrast to Ask Dillon, who has been kept busy and is expected to run in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle over three miles on the Friday.

Ask Dillon has run five times since May, winning once and finishing second three times.

The final decision of who runs where is O’Brien’s of course although Coley expects Coolanly to run in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, also on the Friday, with Connor Brace on board.

Perfect Candidate has been entered for the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase on the Thursday but also has an entry for the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter on Saturday 16th March.

However, Coley says he is “very likely to go to Cheltenham,” adding, “he’s won three times at the course.”

Coley also expects Aye Aye Charlie to run in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, so what would he consider to be a good Festival for O’Brien?

“It would be great to have a winner,” Coley admitted, “but we’ve had a couple of places in the past couple of years and to at least match that would be good.”

But with close on 40 winners this season and more than £430,000 won in prizemoney, there’s surely a fair chance that O’Brien could crack his Festival duck this year.