Willie Mullins will travel to the Cheltenham Festival with another astonishingly strong army of equine talent behind him and the weight of a large cohort of punters on his shoulders.
The all-conquering champion trainer will send a squad of around 60 to do battle in the Cotswolds and having saddled a record eight winners over the four days last March, expectations are high that he can at least match that figure if not surpass it.
Here Mullins reflects on his astonishing dominance of last year's meeting and his hopes and dreams for this year.
On whether he can enjoy to the Cheltenham Festival
With having two or three runners in every race, it just goes so fast. You don't get chance to enjoy it or be disappointed because we're thinking about the next race, what I'm going to say to the jockeys, or even if I'm going to have time to talk to them after I've talked to everyone else.
In the evening time we find a bit of time for relaxation and have dinner and a few drinks, so it can be fun.
I think you have to enjoy it for what it is. I'm in a lucky position with the owners, horses and staff that I have.
We've already had three big disappointments (Faugheen, Arctic Fire and Killultagh Vic ruled out through injury), but we still have a huge team going across. Probably nobody ever dreamt anyone could have that many runners going to the Festival.
Teams weren't that big growing up. Big jumping yards had 60 or 70 horses and what we have is unprecedented, especially with the amount we have going to the Festival.
It's just extraordinary and as stressful as it is, it's fantastic and you just hope that we can have winners to match the team.
On saddling four winners on the first day last year
It just happened so fast and you just want it to keep going.
It's just too busy between talking to the press, owners and media to even think about what was happening and I couldn't really believe it, how could you?
The Festival is front-loaded, with all those good races on the first day. It's great to get your name on the board and we've been very lucky the last couple of years to get more than one on the first day.
It would be great to do that again and we could have a fantastic first day this year, but things could change.
They could all run well but finish second or third.
On Annie Power's dramatic final-flight fall in the Mares' Hurdle and winning the race with Glens Melody
Annie was coming to the last and I was thinking 'this is it'. Next thing, she was down.
She went over on her neck and then I saw Glens Melody coming up the rail and thought she was beaten on the line.
Then I looked back and saw the screens up at the last hurdle and I thought all was not well, not realising she'd actually got up and galloped away and it was another poor horse behind the screen.
When I was coming down off the stand I was rock bottom. Even though we'd had three winners already, that was all gone out of my head.
That was some result - Annie Power getting up - and I think that's the way we all felt.
I don't know how much the fall saved the industry, I was just delighted to win it with Glens Melody.
On expectations for this year
We go to the Festival all the time hoping. Other people expect us to have four plus winners and will be disappointed if we don't have at least three winners on the first day, but it's not as easy as that.
We go to the races to find out what will happen. Otherwise we'd just sit here and write out the results.
It's sport. The favourite team doesn't win all the time, the underdog comes up and someone is going to have a fantastic winner.
A lot of things have to go right. Last year most things went right.
We had eight winners last year and I'd be delighted to have even half that amount. I think people are expecting us to do things that are nearly impossible.
The amount of expectation that is put up by the media is huge and we try not to get carried away with it.
We just try to keep a balanced view on our horses and don't worry too much about the others.
I just want to get them to the Festival in one piece and as we've seen that can be hard enough.
I suppose when we have a favourite win it's a relief. If you win a handicap with a 25-1 shot that's fantastic and you probably get more enjoyment out of that.
I haven't set any targets. I just want one winner and to get on the board. I think that's every trainer's target.
On the fear of failure
You're always worried you could have a complete blow-out, or you could get a virus through the yard or something untoward happen and you're left with very little to celebrate coming home.
Lots of people ask if we win a Champion Hurdle and a Gold Cup, is that a great week? I don't know. I'd be delighted to win those two, but another guy might say 'you've only won those two'.
No matter what you do or achieve, someone is going to criticise it, so you just ignore that.
On watching races from the stands
The likes of Un De Sceaux that go out and race with their heart on their sleeve are very tough to watch, from my point of view. From a spectator's point of view it's fantastic.
Vautour last year, he put in a spectacular round of jumping and I knew it was spectacular, but I was watching it just thinking 'two more to go, three more to go'.
While everyone else was just enjoying the spectacle of him galloping and jumping, my heart was thumping.
On watching race replays
Some people would come home and watch the race 25 or 30 times, but I don't. I'd rather switch on to something else.
If Patrick has the winner of the Champion Bumper or the National Hunt Chase we might watch it back and I watched Vautour again last year, just because I wanted to enjoy it.
It's not something I like to do, though. I saw the other day on Racing UK they had a review of last year's Festival and I just passed on. I'd rather find a film or watch TV and get away from horses altogether.
On outside reaction to defeat
When we have a disappointing favourite or maybe a horse fall, you get emails through with people slagging you off like you wouldn't believe.
Some are funny and you might read them and show someone else and then bin them, others you just delete straight away. There is that side to it, but you just get over it.
With my son and two nephews riding, if something doesn't get their way people will say they're only riding because they're related to me. They're riding because they're good enough, in my view, otherwise I wouldn't put them up.
You should have seen the stuff we got after Annie Power (fell). People thought we'd done it on purpose!
You wouldn't believe it. It's absolutely incredible.
On deciding which horses run in which races
We look at the ground and myself and Ruby have a chat at some stage before the meeting to go through what he might like to ride. Sometimes that will determine a lot.
Gigginstown might say they prefer to do this or that and unless we find a reason not to, or unless I totally disagree, that's what we'll try and do. It's their decision in the end.
Everyone has different opinions. I chat to my staff every morning and they'll say we should go for this or we should go for that. They're riding the horses every day.
You take everyone's view and then when it comes to declarations for the first day you just have to go and do it.
You don't know what's going to happen come the Monday morning. One horse might be lame or another might have a dirty nose and take a few days to get over it, so instead of running on Tuesday they'll run Friday.
All little things just come in at the last minute and might persuade you to change your mind.
On the ground at Cheltenham
They usually keep it safe, which is good. For me, we need winter ground, rather than coming into the spring and the ground is too good.
National Hunt racing is a winter game and needs winter ground.
It's very hard for people to punt on horses that have been running on soft ground all winter and then they have real good ground and I'm not sure it's safe for our game either and we need to protect it by having the word soft in the going description.
It's safer for man and beast.
