Fairyhouse officials are keeping fingers crossed the English trained topweight Royale Pagaille will add a touch of class to Easter Monday’s €500,000 Boylesports Irish Grand National.
Final declarations for Ireland’s richest jumps race are on Saturday and the prospect of testing ground conditions appears to increase the chances of Royale Pagaille getting a green light to line up.
“Soft” was the going prediction for the feature event of Fairyhouse’s three-day Easter festival by the track manager Peter Roe.
“I think it will dry out until Sunday and go yielding to soft, and then with the rain on Sunday night it will go to soft, maybe even a little easier. There’s a lot of moisture in it,” he said on Friday.
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The Venetia Williams-trained Royale Pagaille ran sixth to Galopin Des Champs in last month’s Cheltenham Gold Cup and prior to that was runner-up in the King George at Kempton over Christmas. He also holds an entry in next Saturday’s Grand National at Aintree.
“It’s always great to have a Grade One performer, and a horse rated in the 160s, in the race,” Roe added. “It is looking more likely than not likely he’ll come here.”
Niche Market in 2009 was the last cross-channel trained winner of the Irish National. It has gone to raiders four times in the last 25 years.
The JP McManus-owned Thedevilscoachman is another likely to relish soft going and is a general 7-1 favourite for a race set to have a maximum 30 runners.
An attendance of over 15,000 is anticipated for one of the great traditional dates on the Irish sporting calendar.
The busy Easter Bank Holiday festival programme opens on Saturday with both Fairyhouse and Cork starting the first of three days’ action each. There will be live coverage on TG4.
Saturday’s card at Mallow is on the flat and includes the reappearance of Aidan O’Brien’s dual Group One winner Tenebrism in the Listed Cork Stakes.
The spotlight, though, is on Fairyhouse where Saturday’s feature is the €100,000 Rybo Handicap Hurdle.
It is Easter Sunday’s card that contains a pair of Grade One prizes including the WillowWarm Gold Cup in which Willie Mullins has five of the nine runners.
A historic novice contest won last year by Galopin Des Champs, it also includes the likely favourite Mighty Potter from Gordon Elliott’s yard.
The double Grade One winning novice proved bitterly disappointing at Cheltenham last month when only third to Stage Star as an odds-on favourite.
“He came back from Cheltenham a little bit sore and he went down to the vet, Gerry Kelly. He looked at him and we think we have him right now,” Elliott reported.
It was the second year running Mighty Potter has disappointed at Cheltenham but he was ultra-impressive when winning the Drinmore over Fairyhouse’s course and distance in December.
With Davy Russell and Jack Kennedy still on the injury sidelines, and much of Elliott’s usual jockey roster also ruled out, Keith Donoghue rides Mighty Potter for the first time.
Paul Townend has opted for Appreciate It from the Mullins quintet, leaving champion amateur Patrick Mullins to team up with Sir Gerhard.
He also failed to fire at Cheltenham and trailed in ninth in the Brown Advisory there.
Even that Mullins turnout is dwarfed by the champion trainer saddling half the field in the 16-runner Irish Stallion Farms Honeysuckle Mares’ Novice Hurdle.
The champion trainer is also a major player in both Grade Two novice hurdles up for grabs on Sunday.
Hunters Yarn may not relish very testing ground in the two-mile contest considering the pace he showed when successful at Navan in February.
On the back of that he was pitched into handicap company in Cheltenham’s County Hurdle but the gamble didn’t pay off and he was well beaten.
This doesn’t look the strongest Grade Two ever run and with at least 5lbs in hand of his rivals on official ratings, it looks a good opportunity for Hunters Yarn.
Parmenion is one of four Mullins runners in the two-and-a-half-mile contest and rather than having gone to Cheltenham he comes here on the back of a confidence-boosting victory at Leopardstown.
The bare form of that performance doesn’t appear to amount to much, but the style was pleasing and he’s clearly rated by his trainer.
Dinoblue is given her chance under topweight in a later novice handicap chase. Mistakes at the final two fences spoiled her chance in the Grand Annual and a cleaner round of jumping will still make her hard to beat.
