The finale of the second day of the festival sees the best of the national hunt bumper horses fight it out to be the top jumps flat horse for the season.
Last year saw A Dream To Share get the better of owner mate and favourite Fact To File in impressive fashion for John Kiely.
No doubt it creates potential superstars, but to find them we have a list of trends and stats that could help us unearth the next gem for the novice hurdle division.
A strong starting point with profile building is with the trainers.
Willie Mullins has an excellent record in this of late. The master of Closutton has won 6 of the last 12 renewals including 3 of the last 4.
Form is an important trend to follow and that is immediately highlighted as all of the last 16 winners of the Bumper won their prep race.
Look for those who have that all important 1 next to their name.
This even includes the three winners who had just one previous start prior to the Champion Bumper. Coming in off the back of a win would appear to be essential.
Trim the fat by only giving serious chances to those who won last time out.
Although this is a race for young horses who are just learning about the racing game experience has proved vital. All of the last 12 winners had atleast two starts prior to the festival.
Be wary of those who are lacking in racecourse experience coming to the Cheltenham Festival.
As mentioned previously this is a race for younger horses learning their trade.
8 of the previous 12 winners have been aged 5 and all of 12 have been either 5 or 6.
Be wary of older horses or 4 year olds lining up in the Champion Bumper, focus on those in the highlighted age bracket.
Finally, don’t get too caught up with the market vibes in the bumper. Only three of the last 14 favourites have won the race.
Quite simply it is wide open and most of the field is wide open to improve rapidly between runs.
This race hasn't proven to a great race for punters with only 3 of the last 12 winners going off favourite although 7 of the last 12 winners have been in the top 3 in the betting.
The 5yo gelding was beaten on debut for Willie Mullins at Leopardstown but showed serious improvement to win next time out at Navan.
He should improve again at Cheltenham and although he might not be the stable first string on the day he ticks all the boxes for this race and is available at good each-way prices.
