Beef heads Irish National entries
Trainer Michael Hourigan is considering the €250,000 Easter Monday spectacle for his nine-year-old, who is a leading fancy for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup next Friday.
Weights for the three mile five furlong contest will not be finalised by handicapper Noel O’Brien until next Monday, but Beef Or Salmon would carry top weight.
Although the race is only 10 days after the Gold Cup, Hourigan said: “It’s entirely possible he could run at Fairyhouse.
“I’ll take each day at a time and will wait to see if the handicapper makes any allowance on his current rating to encourage me to take part.”
There are 11 British-trained entries including Keen Leader, one of four Jonjo O’Neill representatives, while Francois Doumen has three entered headed by First Gold and Innox.
The latter was recently acquired by J P McManus, who has a total of nine horses among the initial entries.
Other notables include Gold Cup contender Pizarro, 2002 Irish Hennessy Gold Cup hero Alexander Banquet, last year’s Galway Plate winner Ansar and previous Irish National winners The Bunny Boiler (2002) and Timbera (2003).
Handicapper O’Brien said: “The top section of the handicap will be racing off less than their published mark and a race of this calibre now has a worthy top-weight in Beef Or Salmon, one of the leading Gold Cup contenders.
“It is entirely possible we could also have the first French-trained runner in an Irish handicap chase.”
