Punchestown Festival Day Two preview: If Cheltenham was a coronation for War Of Attrition, then today's Guinness Gold Cup at Punchestown can turn into a victory parade for Ireland's latest steeplechasing superstar.

That's what the 240,000 festival feature turned into for Kicking King last year and it will be short odds about War Of Attrition doing the same to become just the second horse to complete the Cheltenham-Punchestown double in the same year.

That brings its own weight of expectation, and with the owner, the Ryanair supremo Michael O'Leary, sure to attract his own share of headlines, it was understandable yesterday that trainer Mouse Morris was keen to play down any idea War Of Attrition's task will be easy.

After all, the 2004 winner, Beef Or Salmon, is not at his despised Cheltenham any more, and trainer Michael Hourigan also throws in the four-time Grade One winner Hi Cloy in a recce mission over the three-mile trip.

Watson Lake is a dark horse over the trip too but if there is a more pressing unknown factor to the race for Morris it is the timing of it after a long and tough season.

"He seems well but you never know how they are at this time of year until you put the gun to their head and see what happens," the trainer said yesterday. "He's been in good form since Cheltenham though and I'm pleased with him."

That Gold Cup victory last month proved Conor O'Dwyer's theory that the real War Of Attrition wouldn't be seen until he ran over a longer trip, and there was an authority to it that will have been duly noted by today's opposition.

Nevertheless, the Beef Or Salmon team will think back to their four-length Lexus defeat of the favourite over Christmas, and Hourigan has always maintained that genuinely good ground is to the horse's advantage.

No doubt those opposing War Of Attrition will cling to such hopes but the youngest horse in the race looks set to teach his elders a lesson.

If the feature is one for the connoisseurs, they will also be waiting around for the other Grade One race on the card, the Paddy Power Champion Bumper, which features the surprise Cheltenham winner Hairy Molly and a strong field of 20 opponents.

The likes of Footy Facts and Leading Run bring big reputations to the party as well but how they react to the good ground remains to be seen as their form is all on a soft surface.

That also applies to many others in the field, which brings a level of uncertainty that could very easily come to the aid of the bookmakers.

Dermot Weld's Dasher Reilly hasn't been seen since winning on fast ground at Galway last July but is well regarded and could be worth checking out.

Nicky Henderson is one of the few top British trainers to travel this week and can make his presence felt in a big way this afternoon.

Henderson has a fine festival record, including scoring twice in both 2000 and 1999. His double prospects appear good now too, Jack The Giant looking particularly eye-catching in the opening hurdle.

The former flat horse showed a significant improvement over jumps when overcoming an early mistake on his Market Rasen debut and then only just failing to Wellbeing at Newbury last month.

That former double Group Three winner then advertised that form in a big way when sluicing up at Aintree. Although Jack The Giant can drift in his races he does act on good ground and comes here on the back of a light campaign.

Henderson's Grande Jete will find the handicap hurdle a different kettle of fish to his South African homeland, where he actually finished runner up in the prestigious J&B Met in 2002.

He has proved hard to train over jumps and his run in last month's County Hurdle was his first for 11 months. Not surprisingly, he weakened at the second last after travelling beautifully up to then, and the benefit of that race can become apparent today.

Crème d'Arblay only got as far as the fifth hurdle at Fairyhouse last week before falling but looks worth another shout off a low weight in the Grade Three mares hurdle.

Macs Flamingo was described as "the most natural jumper I've had" by trainer Pat Fahy after winning at Tramore, and now that the stable is back to something like top form he can follow up in the handicap chase.