Friday’s racing on the final day of The Festival gets underway at 1.30pm with the £100,000 Grade One JCB Triumph Hurdle and the 29 acceptors include leading Irish-trained contenders Alaivan and Carlito Brigante as well as Advisor and Soldatino, who have both made impressive starts to their hurdling careers.

A total of 36 horses remain for Friday’s third Grade One contest, the £100,000 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (2.40pm), headed by the Tom George-trained Tell Massini, who has notched a pair of Grade Two victories at Cheltenham already this season.

Restless Harry also boasts winning form at Prestbury Park, having taken the Grade Two Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle on Festival Trials Day, while Shinrock Paddy landed a Grade One contest at Navan in December.

This season’s leading hunter chasers will be hoping to triumph in the amateur’s Gold Cup, the £40,000 Christie’s Foxhunter Chase (4.00pm), and a total of 39 horses going forward include Roulez Cool, who was runner-up in a Grade Two Chase in France before joining current owner/trainer Robert Waley-Cohen.

Baby Run was third in last year’s race and went on to take the Punchestown Champion Hunters’ Chase for trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, while Aintree chairman Lord Daresbury, who partnered Timmie’s Battle to victory in 1978, could return to the winner’s enclosure as an owner with the 2008 scorer Amicelli or Aintree Fox Hunters’ victor Trust Fund.

Fiercely competitive handicap action looks guaranteed with 71 going forward for the £75,000 Grade Three Vincent O’Brien County Handicap Hurdle (2.05pm), while 128 horses have stood their ground for the £50,000 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle (4.40pm).

Four days of enthralling action at The Festival is brought to a close by the £80,000 Grade Three Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase (5.15pm) and the 46 remaining entries feature the Nicky Henderson-trained trio of French Opera, You’re The Top and Pepsyrock.