Gambling Girl (11/1 to 7/1) is attracting all the early money© Photo Healy Racing
This afternoon's 20th running of the Bar One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse promises to be a vintage renewal of the Grade 1 contest.
Previous winners of the race include some of the best National Hunt horses of recent times, most notably Istabraq, Moscow Flyer, Hardy Eustace and Hurricane Fly.
Noel Meade, a three-time winner of the race with Wild Passion, Iktitaf and Muirhead, believes he has a live chance with Very Wood as the likely fast pace will bring out the best in him.
The four-year-old won a point-to-point and a bumper at the Punchestown Festival when trained by Gordon Elliott last season and made a winning debut over hurdles for Meade at Galway in late October.
He suffered an odds-on Navan reverse at the hands of Minella Foru who reopposes this weekend, but Meade is hopeful his charge can turn the form around.
Meade said: "There's a few more runners, which won't do us any harm I don't think as the last day he ended up in front and it turned into a bit of a mess.
"Hopefully they'll go a bit more of a gallop on Sunday, which will suit our horse and we'll see what happens from there.
"He's in good form, but obviously it looks a good race.
"The Tullow Tank is probably the one we all have to beat."
Gigginstown House Stud are also represented by Somethingwonderful but trainer Dessie Hughes admits his charge is likely to struggle at this level.
"He's in good form. He wouldn't look to have much chance on ratings, but we'll give it a go and see what happens," said Hughes.
Owner Barry Connell felt The Tullow Tank fully deserved to be supplemented. Trained by Philip Fenton, the five-year-old showed a smart turn of foot to beat the highly-regarded Turnandgo at Naas earlier this month.
Having run in a couple of hurdle races last season before going back to win a bumper, Connell feels that extra experience will stand him in good stead.
"He just got caught in a pocket the last day and we thought he was beaten," said Connell.
"Thankfully he got out, though, and showed a nice turn of foot to win. I think it helped he'd had those two previous runs over hurdles.
"In Ireland you can run over hurdles twice and still go back and run in a bumper and I think that experience he gained running in good races was invaluable. His bumper form was also very strong and I felt he deserved to take his chance."
Willie Mullins has three runners in Alonso Arctic Fire and Renneti The aforementioned Minella Foru and Jessica Harrington's smart mare Gambling Girl also feature in a 10-runner field.
