If day one at Listowel told us anything it was that an ability to act on a soft surface is absolutely vital, something that Theseus can prove successfully on day two in the featured Supporters Club Lartigue Hurdle.

Pat Hughes also runs the topweight, Topacio, who proved himself one of the top four-year-olds of last season by scoring in the IAWS Hurdle at the Punchestown festival.

Topacio proved earlier in the winter that soft ground was not too much of a problem for him, but the presence of his regular rider, Charlie Swan, on the stable companion, Theseus, looks a tip in itself.

This horse was second of three to Penny Rich on bad ground at Tralee; also runner-up to Winning Jenny at Tipperary, and scored in a flat race at Leopardstown earlier in the year. He does look a horse with the future, and with Topacio topping the weights, comes in here with a comparative light weight.

Ranged against Theseus are horses with obvious chances such as the Tralee winner, Message Recu and Berengarius, who scored at Galway, but with Swan on his back, Theseus is marginally preferred.

Swan can train as well as ride the winner of the first division of the maiden hurdle with the Tralee bumper winner, Over The First; and Norman Williamson looks the jockey to follow in the handicap chase. His mount, West Trix VI, has been dropped almost half a mile from when runner-up to Wolesley Lord on his only start of the year so far.

Denise Margaret's run behind Sequoah in the Debutante Stakes is pretty eyecatching in the context of the opening maiden, but the Galway runner-up, Per Amore, is just preferred as is the soft ground-loving sire, General Monash. Theseus's trainer Pat Hughes can also score with the Michael Kinane-ridden Cooper Island in the two-mile handicap.