Duel of stars still on the menu

News round-up: The clash between Beef Or Salmon and the rising young star of Irish steeeplechasing, War Of Attrition, looks to be on for Down Royal on Saturday.

The Northern track appears to have escaped the worst of the recent inclement weather and the current ground description of "soft" doesn't appear likely to be changed before the James Nicholson Wine Merchant Champion Chase.

That will be good news for trainer Mouse Morris, whose War Of Attrition jumped to the forefront of the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting with his defeat of Kicking King at Punchestown last month.

War Of Attrition is as low as 10 to 1 with some firms for the Gold Cup even though he has yet to race over three miles. That looks likely to change at the weekend.

"He will run if it is soft but I don't want it absolutely bottomless. Worse than soft and he won't run," Morris said yesterday. "The three-mile race is my number one option but it will depend on what happens with the weather between now and then."

The Down Royal manager Michael Todd had good news on that score yesterday, with little change expected in the ground between now and the weekend.

"It is soft on the chase track and there are some heavy patches on the hurdle course but it is not bad at all," Todd reported. "We're having a good, drying day now and even though it's expected to be unsettled tomorrow it is supposed to be okay again for Friday and Saturday. With any luck at all I can't see it changing much."

Beef Or Salmon defeated Kicking King in a vintage renewal of the Grade One contest in 2004, when he was ridden by Timmy Murphy.

Michael Hourigan has also left his stable star in Sunday's November Handicap on the flat at Leopardstown but said yesterday: "That was just a precautionary entry in case something happened with the other place."

The bookmakers are finding it impossible to split War Of Attrition and Beef Or Salmon in the betting for Saturday's race, Cashmans making the pair 5 to 4 joint favourites.

However, Beef Or Salmon has become something of a "forgotten horse" in the Gold Cup market and is now a general 14 to 1 shot for steeplechasing's blue riband. But Hourigan retains his faith in the top-class nine-year-old, whose fourth to Best Mate in the 2004 Gold Cup was his best effort in three attempts at the Cheltenham feature.

The Down Royal meeting opens tomorrow with the featured Anglo Irish Bank Hurdle, a race that last year saw Macs Joy defeat Brave Inca.

A total of seven Irish-trained horses remain in the £110,000 Paddy Power Gold Cup, which will be run at Cheltenham on Saturday week, headed by Michael O'Brien's Grade One winner Forget The Past.

Also in the list are the Kerry National winner Euro Leader and Noel Meade's Watson Lake. Last weekend's Wetherby winner Ollie Magern is the long-range topweight followed by last year's winner Celestial Gold.

The penultimate day of the 2005 flat season is scheduled for Clonmel this afternoon but the track will first have to pass a 7.30 inspection this morning. The course was raceable yesterday but significant overnight rain is forecast. If it does get the green light the quality focus will be on the novice chase, where his improved jumping can see Kerryhead Windfarm reverse Limerick form with Doctor Linton, and on the concluding maiden hurdle, where O'Muircheartaigh makes his jumping debut.

Edward O'Grady's horse was impressive when winning a bumper at Cork last month and it will be a major disappointment if he cannot follow up today.

Johnny Murtagh teams up with his old boss John Oxx for Lady Gregory in the opening mile and a quarter maiden and the booking looks significant considering Murtagh has regularly ridden Mary From Murroe in the past.

Cashmans bet: 5-4 Beef Or Salmon & War Of Attrition, 10 Mariah Rollins, 12 Native Upmanship & Strong Project, 14 Kadoun, Always, 25 Cregg House, 33 Montayral.