Mystic Theatre© Photo Healy Racing
Mystic Theatre is out to continue on her upward curve in the Pat Walsh Memorial Irish EBF Mares Hurdle at Gowran Park on Friday.
Willie Mullins has claimed this Listed prize with Daisy's Gift and Airlie Beach in the last two seasons and this year the champion trainer relies on a six-year-old who is seeking to extend her unbeaten record over timber to four.
Mystic Theatre was last seen hammering Jaime Sommers at Bellewstown at the end of August and that rival is in opposition again, although she is on something of a retrieval mission after disappointing at Navan last weekend.
Heading the weights is the Noel Meade-trained She's A Star who hasn't been sighted since pulling up at Fairyhouse over Easter but got closest to the classy Death Duty in a Navan Grade Three.
The other Listed affair on the card is the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mucklemeg Mares Flat Race, in which the Mullins pair of Ainsi Va La Vie and Diamond Hill are among a quartet of unbeaten horses on show.
Their stable companion Glens Harmony is no forlorn hope either because she hit the crossbar at this level on her most recent appearance.
The latest French recruit to come off the Mullins/Rich Ricci conveyor belt is Sharjah who starts off in the Paulstown Maiden Hurdle.
He takes on Noel Meade's Dis Donc whose runs in France impressed Meade enough for him to go to six figures at the sales last year.
Mullins and Meade also lock horns in the Racing Again Tomorrow Maiden Hurdle with Iolani and Laverteen respectively, although Joseph O'Brien's good bumper performer West Coast Time will be a tough nut to crack. Line Out is on a hat-trick mission in the Bennettesbridge Handicap Hurdle, while last week's Downpatrick runner-up Pinotage aims to go one better in the Buy Tickets Online Handicap Hurdle.
