RACING IRISH GRAND NATIONAL:THE CONCEPT of "standby" might be antiquated in airline terms but the Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary is in an anxious queue ahead of today's €250,000 Ladbrokes Irish Grand National to see if the gambled-on favourite, Beautiful Sound, gets a run in Ireland's most valuable steeplechase.

As second reserve for the Fairyhouse highlight, Beautiful Sound needs a couple of non-runners from the final declared field of 25 runners in order to line up for a race many punters reckon he could be a shoo-in for – if he gets a run.

“The ground is perfect, the trip will be fine: everything is ideal. But we’ll just have to sit and suffer,” Beautiful Sound’s trainer Gordon Elliott said.

It’s hardly an ideal scenario ahead of such a high-profile event but it does mean even more Easter Monday attention for O’Leary whose offer to purchase the winner of the Champion point-to-point bumper on the spot this afternoon for €100,000 will be another focus of interest on National day.

Beautiful Sound is a product of the point-to-point field and is set to have just his sixth racecourse start today under Paul Carberry who has been sweating to make the scheduled weight on the Gordon Elliott-trained horse.

However, Prince Erik, a runner with a very different profile, could be a better National answer today.

It is nearly four years since Prince Erik lined up for the Irish Derby and finished a respectable sixth behind Soldier Of Fortune. Since then he has matured into a versatile winner over fences, hurdles and on the flat but those big-race ambitions held out for him as a youngster can flourish now in very different circumstances.

It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are most anywhere in the racing world to Dermot Weld and the legendary Curragh trainer can notch up another Irish National victory – 23 years after Perris Valley in 1988.

Weld has had just one runner in the race since – Ebony Jane’s sixth in 1995 – but today’s race can put the cherry on top of another successful winter campaign.

Weld’s small-but-select team of jumpers has won 16 races at a remarkable 35 per cent strike rate, to which Prince Erik contributed with a good victory at Naas in February.

Proven on even faster ground than he is likely to get today, and running off a nice racing weight of 10st 5lb, Prince Erik can boast Cheltenham festival-placed form at three miles over hurdles and has the look of a horse prepared especially for this.

Weld has also landed a big steeplechase pot this season with Majestic Concorde’s Paddy Power victory over Christmas.

A total of four cross-channel hopefuls are due to line up including the Welsh National winning topweight Synchronised and Tony McCoy’s mount Quantativeeasing, both of which are part of a big JP McManus squad.

Willie Mullins will have four runners if Pomme Tiepy, the first reserve for the race, gets in but the Irish National has not been a happy hunting ground for Ireland’s champion trainer with not one of his runners even making the places over the last decade.

Even though Ruby Walsh is on Shakervilz, it is Some Target who could emerge best of the Mullins team but in a somewhat murky National picture it could be Prince Erik who stands out as the first grey to win the Fairyhouse feature since Son Of War in 1994.

One of the main threads running through the final couple of weeks of the National Hunt season will be the struggle for the owners championship between O’Leary and McManus. The National will be an important event in prizemoney terms but the Grade Two novice hurdle could aid O’Leary’s cause too with Rathlin taken to build on a promising Cheltenham sixth to Al Ferof.

Philip Rothwell’s highly-regarded youngster was having just his third start over flights at the festival and should be okay on quicker ground having run on a fast surface in point to points.

“My horses had been pretty unhealthy over the winter and he went to the Supreme on the back of a course of antibiotics, so we hope that he’ll be healthier and better than that,” Rothwell said yesterday.

“He was one of the least experienced in the Supreme but he’s very professional and we probably made too much use of him. Maybe I learned more over there than he did.”

Today’s other Grade two contest is the two-and-half-mile conditions hurdle and while Gimli’s Rock has plenty to do on figures, he comes here in form while For Bill could bounce back to form after a Limerick reverse in the Listed mares chase.

Dessie Hughes has three runners in the National but could also make his presence felt in Cork with both Eyre Apparent and Optimum Force.