Nicky Henderson believes Sir Gino’s position as arguably the leading juvenile hurdler seen so far this season is undiminished after absorbing all the action from last weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival.

The master of Seven Barrows was an avid viewer of what he termed “the Willie Mullins racing festival”, with the Closutton trainer hoovering up all eight Grade One prizes on offer over Leopardstown’s two-day fixture, including the Irish Gold Cup with Galopin Des Champs.

While Ballyburn’s victory stroll in Sunday’s two-mile Grade One set alarm balls ringing for Henderson’s Supreme hope Jeriko Du Reponet, he was not so troubled by the result in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle, which saw Kargese lead home a one-two-three-four for Mullins.

Sir Gino is a general 4-5 favourite for the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival after supplementing a British debut win with a 10-length triumph over Burdett Road on Trials day at Prestbury Park and Henderson is confident of his claims, although he is not ruling out a late surprise contender.

He said: “Galopin looked very good on Saturday – they all looked very good over at the weekend at Leopardstown. I enjoyed watching the Willie Mullins racing festival!

“Watching the opposition over the weekend, of all the novices they had that came out, there were some very impressive performances, none more so than (owner) Ronnie Bartlett’s two-miler (Ballyburn). He looked very good and I’m trying to persuade him to go two and a half (miles).

“The juveniles didn’t possibly look as strong as they might do, I was thinking ‘Willie’s going to come out with some rocket’, it doesn’t looks as if he did. The opinion seemed to be nothing happened to cause Sir Gino a great loss of sleep.

“There’s sure to be something crop up somewhere, in the Adonis or in Ireland, but at the moment, his performance did look quite smart at Cheltenham and I think he is a very smart horse, but there’s a long way to go.”

Galopin Des Champs reversed recent form with Fastorslow in defending his Irish Gold Cup title, having found that rival too sharp on the last two of their three meetings.

A Cheltenham Gold Cup defence is now the next port of call for Mullins’ stable star, with Henderson hoping Shishkin can book his Festival ticket with victory in Saturday’s Betfair Denman Chase.

However, even if all should go to plan at Newbury, Henderson is anticipating the sternest of challenges from Galopin Des Champs in the Cotswolds next month.

Of Mullins’ charge, he said: “I think he’s very good, he’s a proven Gold Cup winner so he has to be very good. I think he is a very clinical, professional horse, he just gets out there and gets the job done.

“He doesn’t strike me as a very flashy horse in his race or anything, but he’s always there isn’t he. He’s a tough horse, too.

“I thought he was very, very good and you could find little fault in what he has done. He’s the horse we all have to beat and I’m just thinking and hoping he’s not unbeatable.”

Willie Mullins reflected on a weekend of “fantasy horse racing” at the Dublin Racing Festival after securing all eight Grade Ones prizes up for grabs across the two-day fixture for the first time.

The Closutton handler has dominated the high-profile meeting since its inception in 2018, although he had hitherto not quite found the correct combination to mop up all the top-level prizes in the same year.

But having once again sent an army of equine superstars to Leopardstown, Mullins completed a Grade One clean sweep, at odds of nearly 6,505-1 – an achievement the all-conquering champion trainer insisted he does not take for granted.

He said: “It’s been a superb weekend. You see the team in action this weekend and I’m delighted for them, I’m delighted for my owners and my staff, it’s terrific.

“It’s extraordinary, we know that. Everything has come together – we have tremendous owners who invest in Irish racing and they love it.

“It’s tremendous to have people from abroad bringing money like that into Irish racing and we’re the beneficiaries – we’re very lucky.”

Galopin Des Champs starred in the trainer’s Saturday four-timer as he defended his crown in the Irish Gold Cup, ensuring he will be a short price to do the same in the Cheltenham Gold Cup next month.

It is further evidence of the huge strength in depth that Mullins has at his disposal that he won the other three Grade One races on the first day with apparent second, third and even fourth strings.

The champion trainer’s nephew Danny Mullins enjoyed a treble, getting off to a flying start aboard rank outsider Dancing City in the curtain-raising Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle before landing the Spring Juvenile Hurdle and the Irish Arkle on Kargese and Il Etait Temps respectively.

On Sunday the results were a little more predictable, with State Man making it back-to-back wins in the Irish Champion Hurdle, Ballyburn justifying odds-on favouritism in the Tattersalls Ireland 50th Derby Sale Novice Hurdle and El Fabiolo cementing his status as Queen Mother Champion Chase favourite with a clear-cut win in the Dublin Chase.

The only minor upset among the four Mullins winners on day two was Fact To File’s defeat of better-fancied stablemate Gaelic Warrior in the Ladbrokes Novice Chase, with the latter exiting when well held at the final fence.

Mullins added: “You can’t get much better – it’s fantasy horse racing, isn’t it?

“We bring the horses here and as you saw a lot of our second strings won yesterday, it was amazing and Danny had a tremendous day.

“They’re all coming here on their merits for different owners and may the best one win on the day. You don’t know what will happen, look at Gaelic Warrior today – he was many people’s banker for the weekend and was a complete blowout. It’s not simple.”

Much has been made of Mullins’ increasing dominance on the National Hunt scene, with the fact he saddled the only two runners to go to post in the Ladbrokes Novice Chase clearly disappointing.

“It’s unfortunate,” he admitted. “Grangeclare West wasn’t right this morning and we withdrew him, I never dreamt (Gordon Elliott’s) American Mike would come out, I don’t know what happened there.

“It is unfortunate, but we run everything we can anyway. We just aim for these festivals and hope that ours turn up and as you see, they don’t all turn up.

“Yesterday we had a couple of favourites beaten, it’s racing and that’s why you have to come to the races and find out. If I was punting, I’d be losing my tonsils I’d say!”

Gigginstown House Stud will be looking to potential future stars to provide them with more great memories at the Dublin Racing Festival.

The racing operation of Ryanair supremo Michael O’Leary is no stranger to success at Leopardstown’s flagship meeting, winning the feature Irish Gold Cup with both Conflated and Delta Work in recent years, and also picking up the Irish Champion Hurdle with Apple’s Jade.

The 2022 hero Conflated will be back again to do battle with Galopin Des Champs in the feature event of Saturday’s card, but the main hopes of success lie earlier in the day, when both Storm Heart and Predators Gold head into their respective contests as betting favourites.

Both trained by Willie Mullins, it is Predators Gold who could give Gigginstown the perfect start to the meeting in the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle, with the five-year-old stepping up in trip following his Grade One runner-up effort over two miles behind Caldwell Potter at Christmas.

“He won his maiden over two and a half miles, then came back in trip at Christmas,” said Eddie O’Leary of Gigginstown.

“His run over two was very good but this is very much more his trip. We will see where we are with him.”

Predators Gold is immediately followed by ultra-impressive Punchestown scorer Storm Heart, who now faces the acid test of his capabilities in a red-hot running of the McCann FitzGerald Spring Juvenile Hurdle.

“He won a maiden hurdle and won it well, but this is the next level and it will tell us where we are,” continued O’Leary. “Hopefully he is lucky and we get to see where we are.”

There will not be an appearance from the exciting Gordon Elliott-trained bumper prospect Jalon D’oudairies, who seems destined to head straight for the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.

However, stablemate The Enabler looks a useful alternative for the Donohue Marquees Future Stars I.N.H. Flat Race following convincing victories at Punchestown and Navan.

The Cullentra House handler’s Conflated will again feature in the Irish Gold Cup, as he bids to get his own ticket to Prestbury Park stamped in a race he caused an 18-1 shock two years ago.

“Conflated is entitled to go there again and after this he will be going to either the Ryanair or the Cross Country at Cheltenham,” added O’Leary. “Hopefully he puts up a good showing.”

Faugheen was no stranger to dazzling on the big occasion, but as the curtains began to close on his decorated career, he saved one more moment of magic for his adoring home supporters, lighting up the Dublin Racing Festival with a heroic display that sent Leopardstown into a frenzy.

One of the best Champion Hurdle winners of modern times, injury setbacks saw him reinvented first as a staying hurdler and then a novice chaser, as his trainer Willie Mullins eked out Grade One-winning performances with the twilight of his career approaching.

Although a dual Cheltenham Festival scorer, it was Leopardstown that played host to some of his finest displays and he arguably saved his best until last at the Dublin track when his final outing in the Irish capital saw him bring the house down with a brilliant swansong success.

Sent novice chasing at the ripe old age of 11, Faugheen had made the perfect start to fencing and arrived at Leopardstown having dispatched Samcro to taste Grade One glory at Limerick over Christmas.

Eyeing more success at the highest level, Faugheen was sent off the 13-8 joint-favourite for the Flogas Novice Chase and showed all of the qualities and class that had made him such a mainstay of the National Hunt racing scene as he held off stablemate Easy Game for a fairytale victory that would go down in Irish racing folklore.

“Going into Leopardstown, we knew he had been in good form, but for him it was a big day,” said Joe Chambers, racing manager for Faugheen’s owners Rich and Susannah Ricci.

“You were kind of harking back to the Danoli days and days of yesteryear where people were just leaping over tables trying to take advantage of every vantage point. There are a few wonderful pictures of the crowd and they were however many deep around the ring, and every balcony and vantage point was filled.

“Paul (Townend) nearly came off him at the back of the last and it wasn’t without drama, but it was a wonderful day and a pretty emotional day as well. It was a day where I saw Willie get emotional and you don’t often see that.”

It was also a huge occasion for Townend, who in the early stages of his tenure as Closutton number one, finally got his highlight-reel moment aboard Faugheen, having watched on as Ruby Walsh and many of his weighing room colleagues enjoyed great days alongside the popular gelding.

“It was great for Paul as well, because he hadn’t actually ridden Faugheen that many times,” continued Chambers.

“Faugheen was very much a part of Ruby’s career and David (Mullins) had won a Grade One on him and Emmet (Mullins) had won a Grade Three on him and Patrick had won a Grade One as well on him.

“Paul and Danny (Mullins) were somewhat the odd ones out and ultimately, when the music stopped, Danny was the only one left standing.”

The noise reverberating around Leopardstown as Faugheen made a triumphant return to the winner’s enclosure that day could be heard for miles around and although their great warrior will always be associated with the track, Chambers points out Faugheen often received a hero’s reception wherever he went.

He said: “I think you could be anywhere (in the world) with a crowd like that and a horse like that to celebrate and it was just one of those days where everything came together.

“He reincarnated himself as a novice chaser and he had two great days really – you can’t forget the Grade One he won under Patrick (Mullins) at Limerick when he beat Samcro.

“At some tracks in Ireland, the more rural you get, the greater the affinity can be with horses – especially ones who have been there, climbed to the mountain top, fallen back and then come back and managed to achieve again.”

So, having reached the summit of the sport once again at Leopardstown, there was one final peak left to conquer, with his Flogas triumph signalling one last return to the Cheltenham Festival in a quest to add a third Prestbury Park victory to his CV.

Sent off the 3-1 favourite for the March Novices’ Chase in what would be the final start of his career, Faugheen would go down on his shield to finish third, as Samcro gained Limerick revenge and conjured up his own resurgence story in a race where Closutton stalwart Melon also made the podium.

Chambers added: “I think at Cheltenham in the novice chase, but for a mistake at the second-last, where he just didn’t meet the fence quite right and Samcro winged it, he could have gone out in another blaze of glory as well.

“He got a wonderful reception that day. There might have been a few thoughts privately amongst people (about retiring after Leopardstown), but I don’t recall anything specific being discussed about it.

“Part of me thinks it would be the natural thing to do, but then again why would you do that having won a Grade One with Cheltenham round the corner.”

A winner of 17 of his 26 career starts, he was given the title ‘The Machine’ after mercilessly destroying the opposition as he racked up a 10-race unbeaten sequence at the beginning of his time under rules.

He won 12 of his first 13 outings before injury agonisingly kept him sidelined for almost two years when arguably at his pomp.

However, such was his resilience and brilliance, Faugheen was still able to win Grade Ones at two miles, three miles and over fences upon his return, thanks to the sublime handling by Mullins and those at Closutton.

Having captured the hearts of the racing public due to his on-track exploits, he now welcomes them into his own home, residing at the Irish National Stud in retirement alongside fellow Closutton icon Hurricane Fly and the likes of Beef Or Salmon and Hardy Eustace.

Chambers added: “The fact he had been so successful and had been unbeaten and had this ‘machine’ moniker and a fan base, combined with his trials and tribulations and still having the resolution to come back and do it, is a testament to the horse and also a testament to Willie’s training of him.

“He was a wonderful animal and he is enjoying a great retirement at the Irish National Stud.

“He’s there with Hurricane Fly and a couple of others and they take really good care of him – and the people who were associated with him, and also people who were fans of him, are able to go and see him as much as they see fit.

“He was absolutely brilliant on his day and the way he won the Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown beating Arctic Fire and Nichols Canyon – that was ultimately the day he hurt himself – but on the figures and ratings, it was a great performance.

“He gave us great days at Kempton when winning two Christmas Hurdles and also some wonderful days at Cheltenham – even the runs in defeat were great.”

Leopardstown is “set fair” for its biggest National Hunt fixture of the year in the two-day Dublin Racing Festival.

The meeting takes place on Saturday and Sunday and features no less than eight Grade One contests.

The highlight of day one is the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup, where Galopin Des Champs will bid to retain his title against the horse that has beaten him twice since last year’s Anglo-Irish Gold Cup double, Martin Brassil’s Fastorslow.

The Goffs Irish Arkle Novice Chase is another eagerly-anticipated event on the opening day, as Barry Connell’s unbeaten Marine Nationale will look to maintain that record, possibly against Willie Mullins’ Gaelic Warrior.

On Sunday the headline race is the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle and although Constitution Hill is predictably absent, there is the next best around in State Man to lead the field.

The weather has been damp in Dublin, but bright and breezy days are expected to dry the turf out ahead of a mild weekend for racegoers to enjoy.

“We had a wet weekend, we’ve had 30 millimetres of rain altogether in the last week,” said Jane Hedley, racing operations manager at Leopardstown, on Wednesday.

“We started the week in the region of soft to heavy but we had a lovely dry, sunny day yesterday.

“This morning the going description was yielding to soft, soft in places on the chase track and soft, soft to heavy in places on the hurdle course.

“Today is a very windy day and we are expecting a few blustery showers this afternoon, maybe in the region of two to three millimetres, but beyond that we look set fair.

“It’s a bit breezy but with bright spells and quite mild (temperatures) at the weekend, so lovely weather for racing.”

The Dublin Racing Festival has been well attended since its inception in 2018 and this year is no exception as hospitality and premium level access tickets are sold out, although there are general admission tickets still available in advance and on the gate.

“We’re expecting a really good crowd, we’re completely sold out in hospitality and our Premier Level access is sold out and has been for some time,” said Hedley.

“General admission tickets are still available, we’re encouraging people to book online but there will be a few tickets that are still available on the gate.”

Of the calibre of racing expected over the weekend, Hedley added: “We’ve got the presence of Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup and State Man in the Champion Hurdle, we’ve always known those horses were going to run and they are incredibly strong.

“In the supporting races there is a lot of strength in depth, the novice races are going to be really exciting and informative and there are some very strong handicaps, too.

“It’s going to be a great weekend, we’re really looking forward to it.”

Gerri Colombe is set to sidestep next weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival and head straight to the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Gordon Elliott’s charge went down by just a short head in last season’s Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase before impressively securing a Grade One success at Aintree.

He kicked off the current campaign with another victory at elite level by edging out Envoi Allen in the Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal but was put in his place when a distant runner-up behind Galopin Des Champs in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas.

A rematch with Willie Mullins’ star performer looked to be on the cards in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup but connections instead appear set to wait for Cheltenham.

“Gerri Colombe probably won’t run next weekend and we’ll go straight to Cheltenham with him,” said Elliott.

“He didn’t run his race at Christmas. He’s grand and can go to all the spring festivals.

“Instead of going back for another slog, we’ll go straight to Cheltenham and we have Aintree and Punchestown afterwards.”

Elliott has been rocked by the news that his horses running under the Caldwell Construction banner of owners Andrew and Gemma Brown are to be sold off next month.

That will affect his chances at the Dublin Racing Festival, as he added: “Farren Glory, Conflated and Found A Fifty will all run but we’ll have less runners than normal, as some are going to the sales.”

Martin Brassil is confident there is improvement to come from Fastorslow when he takes Galopin Des Champs on again in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival.

The feature race of next weekend’s two-day meeting at Leopardstown looks set to feature the first two in the betting for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham just over a month later.

The pair have met three times in their careers to date. Galopin Des Champs finished a long way clear in the 2022 John Durkan Chase when Fastorslow was making his Irish debut over fences – but Brassil’s star came out on top at the Punchestown Festival and in this season’s John Durkan.

He does hold an alternative engagement in the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase, but that will only be needed if the ground comes up very soft – conditions which prevented him taking on Galopin Des Champs at Christmas.

“We only entered for the two-mile race in case the ground comes up heavy, but the preferred option is the Gold Cup,” said Brassil after watching his stable star on the Curragh gallops on Wednesday.

“I’m very happy with him, he’s in a good place, he was ready to run at Christmas. He’s a very easy horse to watch as he eats well, loves his work and thrives on what he does. It’s a case of maintaining that.

“He was beaten a short head when the ground was terrible at Cheltenham a couple of years ago (Coral Cup) and the ground was soft enough there last year (second in the Ultima). He won the John Durkan on soft, he’s versatile regards ground, we just felt that we didn’t really need to run him on heavy ground (at Christmas) when the (Irish) Gold Cup was another option.

“Galopin Des Champs is a top-class horse, a Gold Cup winner, so he’s always going to be hard enough to crack. Going back over three miles is a plus for him, we haven’t raced against him in those conditions.

“I’d say we could possibly be the main challenger. I’m not saying we’ll beat him every time we meet him, but I’m sure they’ve plenty of respect for my horse as I have for theirs.

“We were only hopeful he’d finish in the first three in the John Durkan, there was plenty of improvement to come from him, so hopefully there will be.”

Looking ahead to March, despite two agonising near-misses at the past two Cheltenham Festivals, Brassil can at least take heart from the fact he clearly likes the track.

“He’s been beaten a short head and a neck at Cheltenham and An Epic Song was just touched off in the Coral Cup (last year), I’m sure one will get their head on the right side of it soon,” said Brassil.

“We know he acts around there. The Ultima was only his fourth run over fences, his first handicap and he just came up a bit short, so there was always going to be improvement and thankfully he showed that in Punchestown.

“Because he’d won in France before we got him, some of the conditions of the races we’d liked to have run him in meant we couldn’t, they couldn’t have won a chase before May ’21 and he’d won in September ’19.

“There was no winners-of-one, not one chase on the programme, so we had to pitch him in the deep end, his second and third runs over fences were in Grade Ones.

“Doing that has helped him, he’s not afraid of much, he enjoys what he’s doing and is starting to think he’s special, he’d better keep performing like it!”

Regarding how the horse’s name came about, Grand National winner Brassil had an amusing tale.

“He was in training with Arnaud Chaille-Chaille in France and he doesn’t speak any English, so the man who acts as his agent rang Sean (Mulryan, owner) one night to say the horse was getting close to a run and needed a name,” explained Brassil.

“Sean asked him fairly sharply ‘is he fast or slow?’ and the agent just said thank you and hung up! I’m glad he’s a bit faster than slower, anyway.

“I never thought I’d have a Gold Cup horse, I always thought it was something everyone else had a horse for, but I probably felt the same before the National.”

Intellotto could lead Joseph O’Brien’s small but select team into battle at next month’s Dublin Racing Festival, with his stablemate Nurburgring set to head straight to the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Having shaped with promise on the Flat, Intellotto made a smart start to his career over timber at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting and is being readied for an immediate step up to Grade One level in the McCann FitzGerald Spring Juvenile Hurdle on February 3.

Nurburgring, who has already won a Grade Three over hurdles and was narrowly beaten by Kala Conti in a Grade Two at Leopardstown last time, also holds a Spring Juvenile entry, but he may now be kept fresh for the showpiece meeting in the Cotswolds.

O’Brien said: “We’re probably just going to run Intellotto in the Grade One in Leopardstown and Nurburgring will probably go straight for the Triumph Hurdle.

“Intellotto produced a smart performance over the course and distance. It’s obviously a big jump in class to go straight into a Grade One, but I think he deserves a shot at it.”

O’Brien’s Boldog made a big impression on his hurdling debut at Tramore on New Year’s Day, but his trainer revealed he is unlikely to take up his Grade One entry in Leopardstown’s Tattersalls Ireland 50th Derby Sale Novice Hurdle.

Discussing his other options for the meeting, O’Brien added: “Boldog is probably not going to go, but I have Busselton in a handicap, Solness in a handicap and I have Roedora in the Graded mares’ bumper.”

Paul Townend will have an enviable book of rides at the Dublin Racing Festival as he seeks to find the top novice prospects to partner alongside proven stars.

The two-day meeting was created in 2018 and has quickly become a real highlight of the National Hunt calendar, with eight Grade One races across the weekend including the Irish Gold Cup and Irish Champion Hurdle.

Willie Mullins is guaranteed to field a powerful team of horses and as stable jockey, Townend has the pick of the bunch when it comes to selecting his rides.

In the novice ranks, where horses are yet to assert themselves in a clear hierarchy, this leaves the rider with a few tricky choices to make as the meeting, run on February 3 and 4, approaches.

“I’m trying to sit on as many as I can and see what’s going well,” he said.

“Especially the novices, because they can step forward so much, like the two-mile novice hurdle that was run at Christmas as an example (Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle).

“We’re still in the dark about what probably is our best. Daddy Long Legs didn’t turn up on the day. He could win at Leopardstown in February and he didn’t show up at all at Christmas. I thought I’d know a bit more coming out of Christmas, and I don’t.”

Another example the rider offers is El Fabiolo, a 10-length winner of the Goffs Irish Arkle last season when Townend had opted to ride the third-placed Appreciate It instead.

He said: “Then there’s the novice chasers. Last year, El Fabiolo showed up, I chose the wrong one. Novices can progress at different rates.”

Though there is this element of the unknown with less experienced horses, Townend generally views it as a positive rather than a negative as runners can improve significantly and sometimes unexpectedly as they progress.

“When they do something you’re not expecting it’s fantastic,” he said.

“The other side is the disappointment of the one you think is going to build and keep building throughout the year and it just peters out.

“At the very start of my career, as an 18-year-old, I had Hurricane Fly winning my first Grade One in the Royal Bond. So I probably always loved what might happen with the novices.”

While there will be decisions to be made regarding his novice rides, there is no question Townend will partner proven top horses like State Man and Galopin Des Champs.

State Man, a favourite of Townend’s, is odds-on for the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle, a race he won by nearly five lengths from Honeysuckle last season.

“He just turns up every time. You can rely on him,” he said.

“You can make the running if nothing else will or you can sit in behind. He just shows up and runs his race most of the time.

“He jumps, he gallops and he tries hard for you. I just get a great kick out of winning on him, I must say, and doing it for the Donnellys (owners) adds to that.”

Galopin Des Champs returned to winning ways in the Savills Chase after two beaten runs behind Fastorslow previously, and Townend is confident the reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup winner can hold his own to retain his Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup title.

“He’s doing well and everything has gone well since the Savills Chase at Leopardstown at Christmas,” he said.

“He probably had a little bit to prove that day after losing twice, although we never lost faith in him and he was showing us all the same things at home. But that performance was as good as anything he had ever done before and if he were to repeat that every day, that would be good enough for me!

“It will be a strong race for definite and Fastorslow is obviously a big danger again but there hasn’t been all that much between them in the Punchestown Gold Cup and the John Durkan. I’d be confident if Galopin is firing, he would take all the beating.”

A Dream To Share is set to bid for back-to-back victories in the Goffs Future Stars INH Flat Race at next month’s Dublin Racing Festival, after connections put a pause on plans to go hurdling this season.

The JP McManus-owned six-year-old is five from five in bumpers for veteran trainer John Kiely, also landing the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham and a Grade One at Punchestown.

He was due to embark on a hurdling career this term and was at the head of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle market, but a setback meant he missed his intended jumping debut at Punchestown in October and he was later ruled out until the new year.

And while A Dream To Share is reported to be back in good form, McManus’ racing manager Frank Berry has confirmed he will instead revert to the bumper route in Leopardstown’s Grade Two finale on February 3.

He said: “All being well, he’ll go for the bumper (at the Dublin Racing Festival).

“Basically he’s missed a few schooling days and a few things and with the setback it just didn’t give us a lot of time to get him jumping.

“He’s eligible for the bumper in Leopardstown and that’s the route he’s going to take, so let’s see how we get on doing this.

“He’s coming along nicely, John is happy with him. We’ll learn a bit more at the Dublin Racing Festival and see where we go from there.”

Fastorslow will have two options at next month’s Dublin Racing Festival, as Martin Brassil looks to put the finishing touches to his Cheltenham Gold Cup contender.

Having inflicted a shock defeat on Galopin Des Champs in the Punchestown Gold Cup in April, Fastorslow proved there was no fluke about that when again getting the better of last season’s Cheltenham hero in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase on his seasonal debut.

The trilogy was expected to take place in Leopardstown’s Savills Chase over the festive period, but Fastorslow was withdrawn on the morning of the race due to the deteriorating ground conditions.

In his absence, Galopin Des Champs got back on the winning trail with a brilliant victory, cementing his status in the eyes of the bookmakers as the one to beat in the blue riband at Prestbury Park in March, while trainer Willie Mullins is considering taking in the Irish Gold Cup before the defence of his Cheltenham crown.

Fastorslow is also in Irish Gold Cup contention, but Brassil will also consider the two-mile-one-furlong Ladbrokes Dublin Chase at the same fixture should testing conditions again prevail.

“The entries closed today for the Dublin Racing Festival, so we’ve entered him up for there,” Brassil told the PA news agency on Wednesday.

“He’s in the Irish Gold Cup and we’ve put him in the shorter race as well, just in case the ground came up heavy, then we might run in the shorter race with it being close to the (Cheltenham) Gold Cup.”

Brassil has no regrets about sidestepping the Savills Chase, adding: “It was a horrible evening there, I’d had a couple of runners in the Paddy Power Chase the day before and the ground had well opened up.

“We’ve never ran him on it (testing ground) before, we said we had another option (Dublin Racing Festival) and we said we’d take it.”

While admitting to being impressed by the 23-length success of Galopin Des Champs, he is not shying away from taking him on again.

He said: “He was great wasn’t he? He really was. It’s two-nil at the moment anyway.”