ED CHAMBERLIN: In-form Nicky Henderson can strike gold with power-packed Jango Baie – however Harry Redknapp might have one thing to say about that!

So here we go: the one we have been waiting for. The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup is the perfect ITV race, one of our most watched days of the year.

The eyes of the world are on jump racing and I call this perfect because you, reader, will open your Daily Mail to see 11 runners with plenty of each-way opportunities. After that, I’m looking for storylines and there are so many in this field to capture your imagination.

But there is only one place to start: Harry Redknapp. You will have read all about The Jukebox Man and I have also been to see Harry for an ITV feature. I don’t want to give too many spoilers but we’ve filmed it with him talking from his car window, a la deadline day.

A win for The Jukebox Man puts racing on the front pages. Harry has been on the back pages plenty of times — and I’m sure he would love the opportunity to manage Spurs again — but a victory here would be the pinnacle. Sir Alex Ferguson has never won a Gold Cup, a point Harry playfully makes.

Another fairytale would be for Haiti Couleurs to win for Wales. Rebecca Curtis’s training career has taken off again and this chaser could give Sean Bowen a breakthrough Cheltenham success; he’s the champion jockey, producing AP McCoy-like numbers, but he has not partnered a Champion horse — yet.

Henry de Bromhead knows what a champion looks like — when Heart Wood won the Ryanair Chase, it continued his sequence of having a winner at every Festival since 2017, the year we started broadcasting here — and Envoi Allen, at 12 years of age, is the veteran in the line-up.

A win for Harry Redknapp’s The Jukebox Man in the Cheltenham Gold Cup would put racing on the front pages

Sir Alex Ferguson has never won a Gold Cup – Redknapp (left) is looking to become a champion on Friday

Jango Baie, meanwhile, could help deliver the in-form Nicky Henderson more success

Envoi Allen is almost as consistent as his trainer. This will be the eighth time he has run at Cheltenham and he has won three of his previous seven; the Champion Bumper, the Turners Novices’ Hurdle and a Ryanair Chase. He has earned connections £1.1million but, truly, he’s priceless.

Gaelic Warrior, for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend, will be hard to beat. Grey Dawning is Dan Skelton’s big hope and he will capture hearts. It has been a week for the greys and he’s not without a chance; Skelton’s runner in the Mares’ Chase, PANIC ATTACK (2.40), is my bet of the day.

You can’t discount the JP McManus pair of Spillane’s Tower, who is one of a handful of horses Grand National winner Jimmy Mangan trains, or last year’s winner Inothewayurthinkin, even though after some underwhelming runs we can’t be sure what the horse is thinking!

My idea of the winner, however, is JANGO BAIE. I said in my first column on Tuesday that I expected there to be tears during the week and it will be hugely emotional for trainer Nicky Henderson, whose horses have been in blistering form, if this fellow does what those closest to him think he can.

It won’t come close to the emotion for owner Tony Barney, who had to cut short an interview with Matt Chapman on Wednesday after Jingko Blue won the BetMGM Cup. All his horses begin with initial JB, in memory of his son, James, who died, aged 16, in February 2008. Henderson, like Mullins, is peerless when he targets one at a big race and Jango Baie has had one aim since playing his part in that thrilling finish to the King George on Boxing Day at Kempton — and that is to peak on March 13, over these three and a quarter miles.

What I love about Jango Baie is the determination he shows at the end of his races. He won last year’s Arkle, over two miles, by staying on powerfully up the hill and he reminds me of Kicking King (2005) and War Of Attrition (2006), both of whom won the Gold Cup 12 months after running in the Arkle.

It has been a tough week for punters, with some unexpected results, and it looks another tough day. I’m keen to see PANDA BOY in the Princess Royal Challenge Cup (4.40), for my good friend Brian Gleeson and his son, John, who takes the ride. I’m expecting him to run a huge race.

Regardless of the results, I hope this is a day when racing really shines. Yesterday felt really unsatisfactory: we’ve had Mullins complaining about the ground, too many false starts and jockeys rowing. This needs to be an afternoon with all the right talking points.

Ed Chamberlin is a SkyBet UK ambassador