Valseur Lido© Photo Healy Racing
Willie Mullins has left three in at the five-day stage for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on Saturday,
The champion trainer can call upon Grade One winners Valseur Lido and Ballycasey, as well as Urano, who collected a Listed prize at Wexford recently,
Mouse Morris is represented by 2012 Hennessy third First Lieutenant who, for all that he isn't the force of old, didn't perform too badly on his reappearance in the Clonmel Oil Chase.
Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Coneygree also features among the 21 confirmations.
Mark Bradstock's charge warmed up with a typically smart jumping display at Sandown earlier this month and was given the green light on Sunday to run in the race his half-brother Carruthers won in 2011,
Paul Nicholls is gunning for his fourth Hennessy win - a race he also won twice as a jockey - and Saphir Du Rheu stands his ground. The Ditcheat maestro last won the Hennessy with dual scorer Denman in 2009, and Saphir Du Rheu, an impressive winner of the Grade One Mildmay Novices' Chase at Aintree last season, made a pleasing return to action at Carlisle at the beginning of the month.
As well as The Young Master, who was no match for Nicholls' inmate in Listed company at the Cumbria track, trainer Neil Mulholland has The Druids Nephew firmly on course for a tilt at the historic handicap.
An impressive winner of the Grade Three Ultima Business Solutions Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last season, the King's Theatre gelding has shown a good level of improvement since joining Mulholland's stable.
The eight-year-old came to grief at the fifth-last when travelling menacingly in the Crabbie's Grand National at Aintree on his final start last term and is expected to have come forward for his Wetherby reappearance in the West Yorkshire Hurdle last month.
Mulholland said: "Newbury is still very much the plan and we're pleased with him following a racecourse gallop at the track last Tuesday.
"He's in good form at home and I'm happy with him. It looks like we're in for a dry week and that will only enhance his claims come the weekend."
Three-time Cheltenham Festival winner and 2013 Gold Cup hero Bobs Worth, who lifted the 2012 Hennessy, bounced back to form when successful over hurdles at Aintree earlier this month and adds further intrigue to what is shaping up to be a fine renewal.
