With Denman due to reappear on Newbury's Super Saturday card this weekend and the Irish Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup fixture taking place at Leopardstown on Sunday, it seems an appropriate time to get busy in the ante-post market ahead of the Cheltenham Festival which starts in just five weeks.

The four daily main attractions - the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, World Hurdle and Champion Chase - offer little value, with Paddy Power already having paid out to any punter that has backed Master Minded with them on the latter.

The novice hurdle and chase divisions look wide open, but there is a race where one candidate appears to stand out - as long as connections agree it is pointless taking on Paul Nicholls's big guns in the Gold Cup.

Exotic Dancer - who has been entered for Saturday's Aon Chase at Newbury alongside Denman but is due to run at Leopardstown on Sunday - has tried, tried and tried again to beat Kauto Star and finally got to the finish line before the 2007 Gold Cup winner when third in Haydock's Betfair Chase last November.

But that rare success over the Clive Smith-owned star only came about following Kauto's final fence fall.

Jonjo O'Neill's nine-year-old also benefited from the fall of another Nicholls runner when last year's Gold Cup third Neptune Collonges crashed out in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas.

The pair are set to renew rivalry in Sunday's Hennessy over three miles and, while it would be good to see Sir Robert Ogden's gelding triumph in that Gold Cup trial, the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase looks by far the more winnable target come 12 March.

While not doubting that Exotic Dancer gets the 3m2f of the Gold Cup, the son of Turgeon must have an outstanding chance of success over the 2m5f trip of the Ryanair - despite the anticipated presence of ante-post favourite Voy Por Ustedes, who is in the same ownership.

Exotic Dancer's 10 attempts at distances from 2m4f to an extended 2m5f have resulted in three wins, three seconds and three thirds.

And it is Exotic Dancer's last try at over two and a half miles in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree last October, which was also his seasonal debut, that is the oustanding piece of form. Conceding 18lb to Knowhere, he was beaten just one length with Voy Por Ustedes, giving 1lb, three and three quarters of a length back in fourth.

Being a Grade 1, the Ryanair Chase is run at level weights and Exotic Dancer also has an enviable record at Cheltenham where nine runs have resulted in four wins, two seconds and one third, including when finishing just two-and-a-half lengths behind Kauto Star in the 2007 Gold Cup.

As stated, Voy Por Ustedes heads the market at 4-1 but Exotic Dancer can account for the Alan King runner who is yet to win beyond two and a half miles, while Noland's half-length defeat of The Listener in Ireland last time doesn't look good enough.

The chances of Exotic Dancer turning up in the Ryanair have been strengthened by Barry Simpson, racing manager for the owner. He said: "Voy Por Ustedes is our main hope but there is a school of thought that Exotic Dancer is not a true three-and-a-quarter mile horse and we have given him an entry in the Gold Cup and the Ryanair. We'll play it by ear."

Now could be the time to back Exotic Dancer at the 10-1 with Bet365, Skybet, Totesport and Victor Chandler in the hope that he can pick up some prize money in Ireland on Sunday before taking more Irish cash courtesy of Ryanair in March.