Meade hoping for Muir return

Noel Meade is keeping his fingers crossed that Muirhead can show his true colours in the Limestone Lad Hurdle at Naas tomorrow.

The seven-year-old ran a fine race to split Solwhit and Hurricane Fly on his first outing of the campaign at Punchestown, but could only finish a well-beaten fifth in the December Festival Hurdle at Leopardstown last time.

“He seems very well at the moment but he did disappoint me at Leopardstown the last day and we didn’t find any real reason for that,” said Meade.

“When you look at the weights he’s obviously pretty well-in and the danger would have to be De Valira, who has had a couple of very good runs and finished in front of us at Leopardstown.

“We’ll see what happens and I just want to get this race out of the way before we decide where to go next.”

Meade has a second string to his bow in the shape of Wild Passion, who returned from over three years off the track to finish fifth in a conditions event at Punchestown last month.

“I was happy enough with his last run considering how long he’d had off and you’d hope he’ll improve a good bit for it,” the trainer continued. "He should run a good race.”