Victram endured a nightmare when favourite for last year's Pierse Hurdle but the Co Dublin- trained horse looks set to give the first big pot of 2007 another crack at Leopardstown on Sunday.

The former Irish Lincolnshire and Imperial Cup winner was a hugely supported 4 to 1 market leader for the 2006 Pierse but a mistake at the very first hurdle ruined his chance and eventually resulted in Victram being pulled up by Timmy Murphy before the last.

Despite fears about the tight inside track at Leopardstown, and about the weight his horse might end up with, Victram's Lusk-based trainer Ado McGuinness is coming down in favour of trying for the €130,000 feature again.

"I can remember last year but the horse can't - I hope!" joked McGuinness yesterday.

"He got blinded going into the first jump, went straight through it, and ended up bruising a hind leg. There was nothing else wrong with him, his bloods were fine and he scoped clean, but for three or four days after that his leg went up like a balloon."

He added: "It was very unlike him because normally he's a good jumper. It was very disappointing on the day but the good thing was that Timmy minded him and pulled him up so we still had a horse to work with.

"I would say it's 70-30 in favour of him running on Sunday. At the moment the plan is to run but I would not want the weights to go up any more, 11.3 is a good bit of weight and very few horses win carrying over 11st. I also wouldn't want the ground to get too heavy. If it does, we will wait for the Tote Gold Trophy.

"Leopardstown is not a great course for hold-up horses though. It can get very tight on the inside track. It's not like Sandown or Ascot which suit a hold-up horse more."

Victram is currently a 12 to 1 shot for the Pierse with Paddy Power and McGuinness, along with many other trainers, will be anxiously looking at today's forfeits for the big race which could cause another shake up in the market.

Currently the 8 to 1 favourite is Lenrey who will represent the race's most successful trainer, Arthur Moore. The Naas trainer has won the major handicap six times already under its various names and is also likely to be represented by Well Mounted.

Lenrey is likely to be again ridden by Philip Carberry leaving the coveted mount on the Pat Hughes hope View Mount Prince open.

Willie Mullins has a team of seven hopefuls including the veteran 13-year-old Adamant Approach who won the Pierse in 2002 and who crucially is one of the three horses currently at the top of the ratings on 135.

"I plan to run as many of them as I can," Mullins said yesterday. "Adamant Approach is fit and well enough to run but I haven't decided on who will run or who will ride yet."

Significantly though, it's another Mullins trained contender, the Punchestown Grade One winner Quatre Heures who is described as "the best backed horse in the race" by Paddy Power bookmakers.

"He opened at 20 to 1 but is now down to 10 and he is definitely the horse for money," a spokesman said.

"View Mount Prince is into tens as well, from 25 to 1, but that's mainly due to him winning well at Christmas."

The ground at Leopardstown yesterday was "soft to heavy" and little improvement is expected before Sunday.

"The forecast is for a mixed week. At the moment we can't foresee any problems with racing going ahead but I certainly don't think conditions will be better than they are at the moment," the Leopardstown manager Tom Burke said.

Jessica Harrington was successful with Studmaster last year, and also with Dance Beat in 1996, and this time could be represented by Breathing Fire and possibly Woodhouse.

Conditions will also be testing at Punchestown on Saturday where the ground is already heavy and the forecast is also for unsettled weather ahead.

"It's a mixture of showers and dry spells. But at this stage I don't see us being in trouble," said the Punchestown manager Richie Galway.

Saturday's feature at the Co Kildare track will be the Grade Three Juvenile Hurdle where Willie Mullins can pick from the trio of Financial Reward, the Limerick winner Jayo and Deutschland who won on the track on his jumping debut.

A total of 13 entries remain in the race and they include the Leopardstown winner Island Life from Noel Meade's stable as well as the Dermot Weld-trained Majestic Concorde, the Irish Cesarewitch runner-up, who has almost 20 lengths to make up on Island Life from their running over Christmas.