Ireland rightly prides itself on being the birthplace of the steeplechase, and yet until Vincent O'Brien took the matter in hand in 1987 all the great steeplechases in the Irish Calendar were handicaps.

Thirty-nine years earlier he himself had made his initial sortie onto the international stage by winning the first of three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups with Cottage Rake, and now he turned sponsor with Leopardstown the venue for the Vincent O'Brien Gold Cup. Once it had survived its birth pangs he handed on the responsibility in 1991 to its present sponsor Hennessy Cognac.

For much of its history it has been a charity benefit as English trainers plundered eight of the first nine runnings.

An Irish hat-trick in the last three years through the medium of Imperial Call, Danoli and Dorans Pride has done much to salvage national pride.

The heroic trio are still in training but for a variety of reasons none of them is in the line-up at Leopardstown tomorrow, the final defection being Danoli whose subsequent career has been so dogged by training problems.

However, it speaks volumes for the recent improvement in the standard of chaser remaining in training in this country that, despite these defections, a local horse, Florida Pearl, will still go off at odds-on to repel the invaders.

A tumble three fences out in the Ericsson Chase over this course and distance brought to an end an unbeaten career record that had commenced in a bumper at the same venue two Christmases before.

Adopting a policy that had often been used by the great Tom Dreaper, Willie Mullins elected to miss out altogether on a hurdling career and instead go straight to chasing.

He was vindicated when Florida Pearl brought off a home and away hat-trick in the 1997/98 National Hunt season. The middle leg of it was the Dr P J Moriarty Novice Chase when he beat Boss Doyle, and he subsequently occasioned a grandstand-lifting Festival roar when mastering Escartefigue in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase.

Tomorrow he gets an opportunity of proving both that his confidence has in no way been impaired by his fall behind Dorans Pride and that he has matched or surpassed the progress his rivals have made in this their post-novice season.

The issue of whether or not he would have beaten Dorans Pride had he stood up is one that will have to wait for Cheltenham, but the bookmakers, reflecting moneys invested currently, have Florida Pearl at half the odds of Dorans Pride.

Escartefigue may have made a sluggish start to his campaign but David Nicholson has not lost faith in his capacity to become a champion. The first sign that he was on the way back to his peak came in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, when he was a six-length runner-up to Teeton Mill, who currently disputes Tote Gold Cup favouritism with Florida Pearl.

For those looking for a possible shock it is worth recalling that Boss Doyle is now meeting Florida Pearl on 7lb better terms compared to their clash this day last year, when Mouse Morris's horse got within a length of a driven-out winner.

However, I have every confidence that Florida Pearl can deliver against his French-bred rival in the same decisive manner that Ulster successfully pothunted against their French rivals Colomiers in Dublin last Saturday.

Willie Mullins's most recent Cheltenham winner, Alexander Banquet, should provide the hors d'oeuvre to the main course in the Deloitte & Touche Novice Hurdle.

He has already booked his return ticket to Cheltenham, and another Festival clue should be supplied by Knife Edge in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle. Michael O'Brien would now be the first to admit that handsome is as handsome does, for his unbeaten juvenile hurdler won no beauty prizes from his trainer when he first joined the yard.

The Sunday nap goes to Doon Run, who impressed by running so strongly against Aidan O'Brien's highly esteemed and topically named Christmas winner Give It Holly.

The fixtures committee of the Irish Horseracing Authority have announced four new fixtures to replace some of meetings lost earlier this year. They are: Thurles (Thursday, March 4th), Wexford (Saturday, April 10th), Listowel (Friday, April 16th), Naas (Wednesday, May 5th). In addition, the Gowran meeting fixed for Sunday, June 20th, will be now held a week earlier on June 13th, while the Roscommon meeting arranged for that date has now been put back to Sunday, July 4th.

The committee will meet later this month to reallocate the Limerick fixture following its closure in May.