Cheltenham Racecourse have announced that this year's Festival award for leading trainer will commemorate the late Dessie Hughes.
The festival will take place from Tuesday 10 March to Friday 13 this year. Willie Mullins has taken the honours for the past two years.
Hughes, who died last November at the age of 71, was a major force at Cheltenham both as a jockey and as a trainer.
At The Festival, he partnered eight winners as a jockey and saddled six winners as a trainer from his County Kildare base.
He was one of an elite band of four people to have both ridden and trained a Champion Hurdle winner.
As a jockey, his biggest triumphs came in the Gold Cup on Davy Lad in 1977 and aboard the tenacious Monksfield in the 1979 Champion Hurdle.
Hardy Eustace provided Hughes with his greatest success as a trainer, landing back-to-back renewals of the Champion Hurdle in 2004 and 2005.
Hughes' son Richard has been champion jockey on the Flat in Britain for the past three seasons (2012, 2013 and 2014) while his daughter Sandra has succeeded her father as the trainer at Osborne Lodge and already sent out Lieutenant Colonel to two Grade One victories in Ireland this season.
Richard Hughes commented: "Myself, Mum and Sandra are delighted that Dad will be remembered at this year's Festival with The Irish Independent Dessie Hughes Leading Trainer Award.
"He had so many winners at the course, both as a trainer and a jockey. I will always remember those big races he won, including the Gold Cup (on Davy Lad) and Champion Hurdle (on Monksfield) as a rider and the Champion Hurdle, twice with Hardy Eustace, as a trainer."
