Florida Pearl bids to reinforce his status as Ireland's top rated chaser in today's £125,000 Powers Gold Label Tote Gold Cup, but one opponent who knows him better than most looks to hold all the race aces.
Ruby Walsh had a 100 per cent winning record in the two years the Heineken Gold Cup was run under its present conditions at Punchestown, and now that the race is transferred with its new name to Fairyhouse, he is still on the Grade One trail.
Commanche Court followed up Imperial Call's 1999 victory with a dramatic encore to his own Irish Grand National success 12 months a go and is reported in good shape for the first leg of another possible double attempt.
"He would prefer better ground but is well and is definitely fitter than when he ran behind Florida Pearl in the Hennessy," his trainer, Ted Walsh, said yesterday.
Ruby Walsh has regularly ridden Florida Pearl at home and also rode him in the nine-yearold's first start of this season but Rich rd Johnson, who partnered Florida Pearl to his third Hennessy back in February, takes the mount again.
Willie Mullins reported yesterday: "Florida Pearl is in very good form. We eased back on his training when racing was off but he h as done plenty in recent weeks and is fairly straight."
On official ratings, Commanche Court is just third best in the race, with Native Upmanship next best to Florida Pearl on 160. His trainer, Arthur, Moore is looking to this race to find out if his young horse can stay three miles but all the recent rain is hardly a help.
The veteran Dorans Pride ran at Listowel on Saturday and trainer Michael Hourigan said yesterday: "It didn't do any harm even though the ground was very bad. The ground at Fairyhouse couldn't be as bad as Listowel was and Paul (Hourigan) didn't give him a hard race at the weekend."
What the ratings cannot show, however, is Commanche Court's renowned toughness, which combined with his proven stamina will be a huge advantage on the rain-softened Fairyhouse surface.
The other Grade One contest on the card is the £70,000 Menolly Homes Champion Novice Hurdle, which includes Istabraq among its winners.
This year's renewal appears to be all about Colonel Braxton, who promoted himself to being Ireland's main SunAlliance Hurdle hope before the foot-and-mouth crisis hit home. Colonel Braxton's reputation is big, but he will need to justify it if he is to cope with a strong field that includes four runners from Noel Meade's yard and the £180,000 purchase, Rostropovich, who came good at Cork.
Sheltering will be short odds to repeat his success of last year in the Champion Hunters Chase; and there is still likely to be some interest in the JP McManus-owned World Wide Web in the bumper.
Heavy rain yesterday has forced Warwick to hold a precautionary inspection at 7.30 this morning in advance of today's Flat meeting. The going has been officially described as heavy.
