Racing:Between them, Willie Mullins and Michael Hourigan have won the last 10 renewals of the Hennessy Gold Cup and both trainers could again play major roles in Sunday's Leopardstown feature as they are responsible for half of the 10-strong entry after yesterday's forfeit stage.
Hourigan's rising star Mossbank has been installed a 7 to 2 second favourite by some bookmakers to give the Co Limerick trainer a fifth win in the race, but his veteran triple-winner, Beef Or Salmon, is also back for another crack at the contest he has won for the last two years and also in 2003.
Mullins is numerically stronger, however, with three options, including the 2005 winner, Rule Supreme, and Snowy Morning, who was heavily backed into 10 to 1 favouritism for the Aintree Grand National after yesterday's weights launch.
"The National would have been his aim all season but I left him, Rule Supreme and Hedgehunter in the Hennessy and it looks like all three will run," confirmed Mullins, whose tally of six Hennessys also includes Alexander Banquet (2002) and a four-timer for Florida Pearl (1999-2000-2001-2004).
It's a remarkable strike rate for the two home trainers considering Sunday's race will be just the 22nd running of the Hennessy.
However, Britain's champion trainer Paul Nicholls also has past winning Hennessy form and his Turko, along with Robert Alner's The Listener, will make up a two-pronged cross-channel attack.
The Listener, a course-and-distance winner in the 2006 Lexus, and just edged out by Beef Or Salmon in last year's Hennessy, is a 5 to 2 favourite with Paddy Power to go one better this time.
Alner's assistant, Nick Mitchell, said yesterday: "He is exactly where we want him. Our fellow is more mature this year and is jumping more sensibly. He was mugged last year, though it was great to see Beef Or Salmon win his 10th Grade One."
Nicholls won the race 20 years ago as a jockey when successful on the David Barons-trained Playschool.
However, the joker in the pack may be the top two-miler Nickname who will have his first start at three miles since running fourth to Rule Supreme in the 2004 French Champion Hurdle at Auteuil.
"It's more a finding-out-mission than anything," said Nickname's trainer, Martin Brassil, who was not overly concerned yesterday at reports of the ground drying out at Leopardstown later this week.
"It's not going to be as good as it was at Christmas and he ran well then. It's heavy at the moment so it can't dry out too much. But everyone knows he likes it soft."
Brassil also described Ruby Walsh as his "number one choice" to ride Nickname, the champion jockey having been on board the ex-French star when they won the Normans Grove Chase at Gowran Park two weeks ago. However, Walsh has a number of other options from Turko and the Mullins team.
The Leopardstown Chase winner Mister Top Notch is an intended Hennessy starter but the novice Notre Pere has an option of also running in the Dr PJ Moriarty Chase on the same card.
Mister Top Notch's trainer, Davy Fitzgerald, reported: "He has a lot to find - he is rated only 153 - but he is still improving. We have no other place to go with him but he is entitled to take his place. There's only one Hennessy and he has to take his chance. Soft ground is the key to him. But it's a top-class race."
Just seven entries remain in the Moriarty but they include two other Grade One winners, Sky's The Limit and Thyne Again, as well as the exciting Mullins-trained mare J'y Vole.
Liam Burke confirmed Thyne Again an intended starter yesterday and said: "He has come out of his last race very well and the plan is to run. Ground shouldn't be a problem and he is in very good form. But J'y Vole will be hard to beat getting a lot of weight."
A total of 14 entries remain in the third Grade One race on Sunday, the Deloitte Novice Hurdle, and they include Cork All Star who is a 7 to 1 favourite for the Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham festival.
Captain Cee Bee, denied a run at Punchestown last Sunday because of heavy ground, also features in the Deloitte entries while Edward O'Grady can choose from the pair of Tranquil Sea and Peplum.
Ten runners remain in the Grade Two Chronicle Spring Juvenile Hurdle including Won In The Dark, a Grade One winner over the course and distance at Christmas.
HENNESSY BETTING: (Paddy Power): 5-2 The Listener, 7-2 Mossbank, 4 Nickname, 5 Snowy Morning, 11-2 Beef Or Salmon, 7 Mister Top Notch, 9 Turko, 16 Rule Supreme, 20 Notre Pere, 25 Hedgehunter.
