There may be no Grade One championship at stake but Willie Mullins still faces a particularly pressurised weekend as two of the best young prospects in the sport, Faugheen and Vautour, put their credentials, and the champion trainer's famously cool judgement, on the line.
Presented with the enviable dilemma of which of last season’s outstanding novice hurdlers to leave over flights, while switching the other to fences, Mullins has opted to introduce Vautour to steeplechasing at Navan while aiming Faugheen at Ascot’s Coral Hurdle.
That call has helped propel the unbeaten Faugheen to the top of the Champion Hurdle ante-post betting. But even towards the end of last season, the trainer was teasing out the quandary presented by owner Rich Ricci's two superstar performers, at one stage saying Faugheen didn't strike him as a Champion Hurdle horse.
Even after the latter's Neptune triumph at Cheltenham last March, Mullins was dismissive of comparisons with Vautour's Supreme Hurdle rout the day before.
Two miles
What may have swayed things were a pair of further wins at Punchestown for the outstanding young talents where Faugheen looked particularly impressive in terms of his jumping when dropped to two miles.
It's almost two and a half today at Ascot for a race that Annie Power won in 2013 and the racing world's eyes will be on Ruby Walsh's mount as he bids to retain his unbeaten record. As Mullins said: "This race will tell us a lot, and I'm not looking beyond that at the moment."
The impression Vautour made last season is such that one bookmaker is still just 7-1 about the other Ricci-owned star in their Champion Hurdle betting.
Navan’s €15,000 Beginners Chase is far removed from that but there will be huge anticipation about Vautour’s appearance, almost 30 years to the day since Mullins’s father, Paddy, put the legendary Dawn Run over fences at the same track.
Vautour has made a huge impression since making his Irish debut at Navan a year ago while also convincing many that his ultimate future was always going to be over the bigger obstacles.
It will be interesting to see how an opponent such as Western Boy, who ran Vautour to three parts of a length last January, shapes up against him now. Minella Foru and Viconte Du Noyer, as well as the four year old Clarcam, make this a substantial test but it will be a serious anti-climax if Vautour doesn't score well.
The €100,000 Ladbrokes Troytown Chase presents a 25- runner quandary made possibly even more complicated by Tony Martin's call to run the long-time ante-post favourite Gallant Oscar in the following handicap hurdle.
Martin still runs both Living Next Door and Wrong Turn and the latter, off bottom-weight, and with Shane Shortall's claim, could be a value option on decent ground.
Gallant Oscar is up against an intriguing opponent in the Grade One-winning chaser Realt Mor who has a first start over flights in over three years but who settled noticeably well for Davy Russell on his previous start.
