The latter race, the Maplewood Developments Morgiana Hurdle, marked Brave Inca's seasonal reappearance and was over two miles.

While he is sure to have improved from the run, his task is made more difficult by the fact that he renews rivalry here with that good mare Asian Maze, who filled the runner-up spot at Punchestown.

Asian Maze performed with distinction in top-class company last season, and her trainer Tom Mullins is confident of a bold showing from Ruby Walsh's mount. He commented earlier this week: "She beat Brave Inca fair and square the last day, and while he'll come on from the run, I think the two-and-a-half-mile trip and the ground will suit our mare a little better."

Asian Maze gets the vote to follow in the footsteps of Istabraq and Limestone Lad by landing the Grade 1 event at the expense of Brave Inca, Timmy Murphy's mount Al Eile and the Dermot Weldtrained Bobs Pride.

Clopf, from the Edward O'Grady stable, takes a big step up the hurdling ladder to contest the second Grade 1 race on the card, the Bar-One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle over two miles.

The gelding won two bumpers, and has progressed to winning the same number of starts over timber, most recently a Grade 3 event at Navan. He is sure to give a good account of himself, but preference is for the Robert Tyner-trained Askthemaster. This strapping six-yearold looks to be a very exciting prospect, judged on his recent maiden hurdle success at Cork and his Tipperary bumper victory, and holds more appeal than Clopf.

The latter's stable-companion, O'Muircheartaigh, made a bright start to his chasing career at Punchestown last month, as did Paul Roche's Anothercoppercoast when making a successful debut over racecourse fences at Cork.

Roche's post-race comment was: "I won't throw him in against the big boys . . . or better-class opposition . . . just yet, " but the fact that he does just that in the Grade 1 Ballymore Properties Drinmore Novice Chase is a pointer in itself. Noel Meade's fellow Cork scorer Mac Three, Vic Venturi and Cailin Alainn, a prolific winner from the Charles Byrnes stable, represent the obvious dangers in what is expected to be a very competitive affair.