Istabraq is a uniform 1 to 3 favourite with bookmakers to win his third successive AIG Europe Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday.
Cashmans and Paddy Power have chalked up the prohibitive price next to the Aidan O'Brien-trained horse, with Limestone Lad a best priced 3 to 1 second favourite. Stage Affair and the maiden juvenile Yeoman's Point are contending for the next place in the ante-post markets.
O'Brien yesterday gave a positive bulletin on Istabraq's preparation and confirmed that Theatreworld will take his chance in a three-strong team from Ballydoyle.
He also confirmed that Kilcash Castle, his hope for the big Cheltenham bumper, will also run at the Foxrock track on Sunday.
It's rather more mundane fare at Down Royal this afternoon, but no one knows better than Barry Geraghty that a winner is a winner wherever it happens. The jockeys championship leader, currently on 49, can pass the 50 mark for the season with a double on Portobello Lady and Christy Senior.
Both horses will travel from Jim Gorman's Curragh yard which has been in rare form in the last six months, and Gorman's biggest success came at the Down Royal track with Dragon Triumph in the 1998 Ulster Derby.
Portobello Lady, a Naas bumper winner, has been a typically consistent Gorman runner, and following a neck second to Brigade Charge Leopardstown over Christmas, she was unlucky when hampered behind Have At It and Hat Or Halo in a Navan bumper. Tough and experienced, she looks up to giving weight away to the likes of Miaqualine and Native Sound in the mares maiden hurdle.
Christy Senior was a distant second to Ross Moff over the course and distance of the opener on December 27th, but could be on the improve and is preferred to the luckless Camden Venture.
Geraghty's nearest rival, Paul Carberry, is an interesting booking for Back To Bavaria in the handicap hurdle, while Arthur Moore's young chasers have been in rare form recently and Royal Marine looks up to adding to the record in the novice chase.
