The dual-Champion Chase winner Energumene remains on target to make his long-awaited return to action in Cork on Sunday.
Willie Mullins’s two-mile star, who has been on the sidelines for 20 months, is one of a dozen entries remaining in the €100,000 Grade Two Bar One Hilly Way Chase at the Mallow track after Tuesday’s latest acceptance stage.
Energumene won the Hilly Way back-to-back in 2021 and 2022 prior to landing the two-mile Champion Chase crown at Cheltenham in both seasons.
A potential festival hat-trick was ruled out due to a leg injury and the Tony Bloom-owned horse missed all last season.
Both his stable companions Gaelic Warrior and El Fabiolo are above him in ante-post betting for Cheltenham in March, but a return to winning ways this weekend could see his current general 8-1 odds cut for the Champion Chase.
Mullins has half the entries left in the Hilly Way, including the injury-prone Ferny Hollow and Blue Lord, who was forced to miss the John Durkan due to a temperature.
Sunday’s card also includes the Grade Three Singletons Stayers’ Novice Hurdle, one of a couple of weekend options for The Yellow Clay.
Gordon Elliott’s novice impressed when landing the Monksfield at Navan last month and also has the option of returning to that course and distance for Saturday’s Grade Two Novice Hurdle.
His stable companions Bleu De Vassy and Wingmen are also in the mix for the €36,5000 contest.
In other news Ireland’s champion jockey Colin Keane has a handful of rides at the Happy Valley track in Hong Kong on Wednesday, including four in an international jockeys’ challenge that also includes Ryan Moore and William Buick.
It is the Irishman’s third time to ride in the challenge and he recalled: “It was a very unique experience with the racetrack in the middle of the city and a great atmosphere and occasion. I rode a winner on my first ride there in the first challenge race in 2018 and was lucky enough to win another leg in 2019.”
There is action at Keane’s more familiar stomping ground in Dundalk on Wednesday where the progressive Shaaden will try to make it a course hat-trick when stepped up to a mile for one of the handicaps on offer.
Pat Flynn’s charge is over a stone higher in the ratings compared to when scoring a month ago but has a 7lb claim on her back this time.
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