Douvan is a long odds-on favourite to make it three-from-three over fences when he puts his colossal reputation on the line at Leopardstown this Sunday.

Willie Mullins’s claim that last season’s Supreme Novices Hurdle winner is as fine a talent as he’s ever had once again looked on the money with Douvan’s sauntering Grade One victory over Christmas.

He is set to return to action in Sunday’s €90,000 Frank Ward Solicitors Arkle Chase and is a general 1/6 favourite to go to Cheltenham’s Arkle unbeaten.

“When he worked at first I couldn’t believe what I was seeing every day and was wondering whether this was right: and then he got to the racecourse and proved it,” the trainer recalled.

“Hopefully it’s not preciousness – that the other horses don’t catch up with him as he they get older – but he looks to have a huge engine.

“At Christmas we hoped to get a lead from Ttebbob but he jumped to the front. Patrick [Mullins] said he was going so easily in himself and the others looked to be taking two strides to his one. But that’s the sort of engine he has,” Mullins said.

Veteran jockey Paul Carberry has confirmed he will miss Cheltenham after fracturing a leg he had already broken at Listowel in September in a fall last week. "It was a simple enough fall. The horse just spooked and when I went down the leg gave way.

“There is obviously a weakness there, but it’s not the same break as last time.

“I’ll see the specialist later on, but I’d say this will set us back a couple of months, which is disappointing,” he said.