Richard Johnson will be the leading current jockey at the Cheltenham Festival with 23 successes to his name and the veteran jockey is hopeful of adding to his tally next week.
The evergreen 43-year-old will be riding at his 25th Cheltenham Festival and has a typically strong book of rides, including Thyme Hill in the Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle and Native River in the WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Thyme Hill came desperately close to adding his name to the roll of honour in last season's Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle when a close fourth behind Monkfish.
Thyme Hill has had just two starts during the current campaign, winning Newbury's Long Distance Hurdle before going down by a neck to Paisley Park in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in December to the obvious anguish of his big race jockey.
"It was very, very frustrating at Ascot - everything had gone perfectly apart from the last three strides," Johnson said in a conference call hosted by Great British Racing.
"When they make that change from novice company to open company you never quite know if they're going to be able to get to that point and he showed he has and his two runs this year have been fantastic.
"It was always the plan to go straight from Ascot to Cheltenham so this is what we've been aiming at and I think the slightly better ground might just help us a little bit and again he's only had six runs over hurdles so hopefully he's still improving.
"We've definitely got a fair idea of what we want to do and how we'd like the race to be run. He's got the right profile and I still think there's more improvement to come. I can see him winning the Stayers' Hurdle."
While Thyme Hill is in the relatively early stages of his career, Native River is entering the twilight but showed that the fire still burns brightly with a heartwarming success at Sandown.
"Anyone that likes sport and racing in general, to see an old horse like Native River - who has been at the top of his game for five or six seasons now - it really is an amazing thing when those horses keep coming back and performing to such a high level and that really gave me the confidence that he goes to the Gold Cup with every chance," Johnson continued.
The 11-year-old will be completing in his third Gold Cup, having won in 2018 and finished fourth in 2019 when Johnson doesn't believe he was at his best.
"He won the Gold Cup and the following season - whether that hard season took it out of him I don't know - but he definitely didn't quite show his true form and he was nine lengths behind Al Boum Photo, when he was fourth in it, and he definitely didn't feel himself that day, so I don't think there's a huge gap to bridge.
"After Sandown the other day, the way he travelled, the way he jumped, his enthusiasm. As long as the ground is on the slower side, I think he goes there with a huge chance and I wouldn't swop him for another one.
"Obviously Al Boum Photo is the one to beat and you don't quite know how good Champ is because he's relatively inexperienced but they'll have to put a good performance in to beat Native River."
