Killultagh Vic© Photo Healy Racing
There are some new sponsors on board but it is the same competitive fare at Cork on Easter Sunday, when the Grade Three Betway Chase headlines an eight-race programme.
Course winner Call It Magic returns to domestic action after unseating Mark Enright at the Canal Turn in the Topham Chase at Aintree, and Killultagh Vic is another who had his last run across the Irish Sea.
Willie Mullins’ Grade One-winning novice hurdler had a 714-day break after a miraculous Leopardstown win in January 2016 and at Cheltenham this March he finished down the field in the Coral Cup behind William Henry.
Killultagh Vic reportedly sustained a wound to his left fore in the Cotswolds.
Local hopes rest with Ballyclough trainer Eoghan O’Grady’s Westerner Point twice victorious at the Mallow venue in the past. The 10-year-old now arrives here on a roll after successes at Limerick and Wexford.
The six-horse line-up is completed by Ball D’Arc (Gordon Elliott and Keith Donoghue), Timeforwest (Peter Fahey and Donagh Meyler) and Oh Me Oh My (Margaret Flynn and Paddy Kennedy).
Half an hour on and the Grade B Fitzgeralds Woodlands House Hotel & Spa Adare Handicap Hurdle offers the biggest prize-fund of the day with its 50,000 euro purse.
Hareth finished second here 12 months back, he returns to contest the two-mile-three-furlong event for Charles Byrnes, this time with 5lb claimer Kevin Brouder in the plate.
Despite recent evidence not being too compelling, Hareth has to be kept in mind given he is off a 4lb lower mark than when finding just Ministerforsport his superior here in 2018.
Much attention will also focus on happenings in the FBD Insurance Hurdle with the summer festivals and the likes of Galway on the horizon. Swamp Fox Tigris River and Whiskey Sour have all enjoyed their finest hours at the Ballybrit extravaganza, while in the case of Dr Mikey it is a matter of attempting to land this two-miler for the second year running.
Willie Mullins brings Lac Kivu back off a 626-day break and Campeador makes up the six-horse field for Gordon Elliott and Keith Donoghue.
