There was a point this season when Willie Mullins was questioning whether Douvan was quite the horse he had been.

Today he and many others will be hoping for another glimpse of what this horse may yet become.

Mullins was watching Douvan’s work at home for a few mornings in the autumn and something just did not feel right.

"Like a lot of my horses I was wondering was he the same Douvan in his first few bits of work this year?” Mullins said. “I wasn't at all impressed with him. He has a new rider now with Holly [Conte] riding him instead of Gail [Carlisle]. Holly rode him to work differently. I asked her to talk to Gail about him and she did. Things just improved from there.”

The improvement was for all to see when Douvan won at Cork in early December by 22 lengths as part of a 14-race winning sequence in which time he has won at the last two Cheltenham Festivals and is the white-hot favourite for the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase this afternoon.

Standing out from the equine crowd at the Mullins yard is not easy but at, almost 17 hands, Douvan does just that. "He's a lovely horse in the stable and a kid could lead him up in the yard,” Mullins said. “He has a beautiful temperament and he's got such size. When you stand in to him you have to look up to him – you don't realise it.

"He's a well put together horse and when they’re well put together they look smaller than they are and then you stand into them and you see how huge they are. He's one of the biggest we've ever had.

"He's got spectacular scope and anyone that rides him just says he has a different gear,” Mullins added. “All the others around you are paddling looking to go faster while you’re sitting on him. He just has a huge stride and does it effortlessly.”

The man who has ridden him most is Ruby Walsh.

Draw up a list of the top ten jump horses of this century and the chances are that Walsh has ridden half a dozen of them and yet he readily talks about Douvan in terms of being something special, capable of climbing that list. “I suppose it’s the old adage; the better horse you ride and the faster they go, the easier it is to ride him. He just has a huge amount of natural ability and he’s just a pleasure to ride,” Walsh said.

Champion Chases can leave a margin for error in jumping those 13 fences that would make wafer thin seem like a feast but Walsh will not waste effort looking for a stride. “He’s looking for himself. If he wants to go in, he goes in. If he wants to stand out, he stands out. You don’t have to do anything – you just have to sit there.”

Mullins will have to stand there, watching quietly, as he has for the past two months when a few of the wheels have come off his juggernaut of a yard.

A trainer could have a fair team of horses just from his absentees list and Mullins said: “We’re down a bit on numbers, but hopefully we’ll have quality,” adding of Douvan, “He hasn’t done anything wrong, goes there reasonably fresh and we’re just crossing our fingers – crossing everything – that we get there in one piece and hoping for the best after that.”

If Douvan can answer all the questions he can be the best sight Mullins has seen this season.