Neil Mulholland will send a strong team from his Limply Stoke base in Wiltshire to next week's Cheltenham Festival and revealed Nina Carberry has come in for the plum ride on Southfield Royale in the 146th Year of the National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup, the penultimate event on the meeting's first day.

Owned by Angela Yeoman, Southfield Royale has not been seen since Stephen's Day when chasing home Tea For Two in the Kauto Star Novices' Chase at Kempton.

Mulholland said: "He jumped left that day and he would be happier going around the other way. Quicker ground would help him."

Carberry's victories at the Festival meeting include the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle, the Cross Country Handicap Chase (three times) and last year's success with On The Fringe in the Foxhunter Chase.

Mulholland added: "We are lucky to have got Nina, who is very experienced around Cheltenham, and you would have to think that Southfield Royal would have to have decent chance."

"It is great to go to Cheltenham with a big team and, touch wood, they are all going well. Noel Fehily came down this morning to school a few of them and he's delighted with the form they are in."