Cheltenham Festival Tips: Enigmatic Shishkin to land Gold at 6/1

• Galopin Des Champs clearly the one to beat

• He's short enough though and Mark looks elsewhere

• Shishkin to prove himself a strong stayer

• Check out our Cheltenham Festival Ultimate Guide

It's no exaggeration to suggest the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup revolves around Galopin Des Champs, who could well be the best chaser in training and will clearly take all the beating if turning up on his 'A' game.

In terms of price, though, you want everything in your favour when backing 11/102.11 shots, and while he's clearly the best in this field when on top form, he's not unbeatable, as we've seen a couple of times when second favourite Fastorslow has gotten the better of him.

Granted, Willie Mullins' charge has had plausible excuses for both those defeats, but I'm still happy to look elsewhere at the prices in what is a more open Gold Cup than the betting would have us believe.

The aforementioned Fastorslow is clearly capable of beating the fav when on song and will surely give a good account, though whether he represents good value at around the 9/25.50 mark is open to debate.

Gerri Colombe and Hewick are others to factor in, and there's also an argument that Bravemansgame is overpriced at 12/113.00 given he tends to run well more often than not, though I'm struggling to see him beating Galopin Des Champs.

It would also be folly to rule out L'Homme Presse, who's proven over the track and is better than he showed at Ascot last time.

Enigmatic Shishkin has the talent

Look, no-one would argue that he doesn't come with risks attached, but if there's one runner in the field who's every bit as talented as Galopin Des Champs it's the enigmatic Shishkin.

He's the highest-rated jumper in the last 30 years to be awarded the dreaded Timeform squiggle, that coming courtesy of his refusal to race at Ascot on his comeback run this season, but he's been fine at the start since then, including when beating Hitman in the Denman Chase at Newbury last time.

In between, he was still in there pitching when unseating Nico De Boinville in the King George at Kempton and would surely have gone close but for that mishap two out.

By Nicky Henderson's own admission it took them a while to figure out that Shishkin wasn't a 2m horse, and if anything he looks much more of a through stayer these days, finishing strongly over just short of 3m last time.

He'll be into uncharted territory up the hill in the Gold Cup, but I'd be surprised if he was found out by a lack of a stamina, and I can see Shishkin providing the biggest threat to Galopin Des Champs.

Now read more previews in our Cheltenham Festival HUB.