Jamie Lynch Weekend Preview: A walk in the Parc for Charli

It's that time of the year - well, actually, it's that time of the year before that time of the year - when eyes are closed and ears are opened in Cheltenham contemplation; when everything we've seen on the track and read in the form book, mulling over for months, is manipulated in minutes by trainers, via the media, telling the public the truth, or a truth, more their truth, like post-truth, termed ante-post truth.

Sometimes, one question is all that's needed and anything else is fuzz-filled fluff. 'What price is it?' will suffice for a bookies rep, and substitute 'price' for 'ground' for those celebrity clerks of certain courses. That will do, thank you very much. Likewise, what we want from trainers, all we want from trainers, is a steer towards targets, and then we can do the rest with assessments of the facts of the matter, as the facts are all that matter.

The horses speak for themselves on the track, their only means of communication, and yet so much store is put in what's said on their behalf, by the trainers. More interesting would be what the horses had say about their trainer's well-being in the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival. Now imagine that...

Douvan on Willie Mullins:

'He'd be a fair bit more fidgety this year, alright. And he doesn't laugh as much as he used to. Sure, the only time I've heard him really laugh lately was when O'Leary was complaining about the National weights. Willie's started to do a few strange things, like spitting on horseshoes and throwing them over his head, and talking up Limini for the Champion. He went white the other morning when he thought there was heat in my legs, but I told him it's just boiling in my box with all that padding.'

Silviniaco Conto on Paul Nicholls: 

'He's exactly where I want him to be at this stage, showing all the right signs going into Cheltenham, looking at his bullishly businesslike best, mastering the art of talking up while playing down. But he's always positive, and has hung a sign up in the office saying HANDICAPS ARE THE NEW GRADED RACES.'

Altior on Nicky Henderson:

'I don't think I've ever seen him better. He's full of himself. After drinks, at 8 o'clock, and sometimes at night, too, he'll dance around the yard singing: I've got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way. The only time he's got angry of late, it sounded like Lock, Stock, saying he was gonna tell J. P. to sort out Fran about the Charli.'

Probably the most significant horse of this weekend, the recognised last stop before Cheltenham, Charli Parcs has always had a lot of hype around him, itself an answer to the query: why all the fuss? It cost McManus €250,000 to get him on his team, having won a newcomers race in France for Arnaud Chaille-Chaille, but all the data around his destructive debut for Nicky Henderson at Kempton, especially the time analysis, suggests that he is indeed the real deal.

If he does what we at Timeform think he'll do in the Adonis on Saturday, then it will be the confirmation, after the birth in France and the christening at Kempton, of his superstar status. The burning question is: what then?

It seems, from this week's updates, as if Henderson has got his heart set on the Triumph with him, to keep him to his own age, but when - as J. P. has - you've got two crack juveniles, as Defi du Seuil is and Charli Parcs will be by 2pm on Saturday, then it makes perfect sense to split the A.T.O.Ms (All-Terrain Organic Monsters), more so when an 8 lb four-year-old allowance off a ropey bunch of novices would put one on pole position for the Supreme. It would be a missed opportunity, and when was the last time J. P. missed an opportunity let alone a trick?

Barry Geraghty, for one, will be hoping they're kept apart, and you suspect McCoy would have made sure they were, like in 2008 when he rode Adonis-winner Binocular in the Supreme and Franchoek in the Triumph, though finishing second on both. Geraghty gets the benefit of some jockey politics at Kempton on Saturday, when Paddy Brennan stays close to Cue Card's owner with Theatre Guide in the BetBright Chase, leaving a free space aboard what's, for me, the most interesting contender for the race, Viva Steve.

Geraghty has been booked by Fergal O'Brien, who has already completed phase one of Viva Steve's transformation, on his debut for the stable at Ayr in November; and phase two was merely put on hold by a trip too far in the Classic Chase at Warwick. He's a different horse now from when he was sixth in the race last year (for Mick Channon), and this valuable handicap is definitely there for the taking.