Harry Cobden will get a first taste of Cork on Easter Sunday, where he looks to have an ideal chance to finally secure an elusive first success in Ireland.
The former British champion jockey, who takes over as JP McManus’s number-one rider next month, travels to Mallow to take six rides for Willie Mullins.
Between them, they look almost certain to help Cobden lose the monkey on his back of never having won in this country in advance of officially taking up his new job at the start of the new season.
The 27-year-old has had 25 rides in Ireland and been placed seven times since first riding here in 2017.
His Cork mounts include Classic Getaway in the four-runner Grade Three Chase, although before that, the trio of Mino Des Mottes, Absurde and Kimi De Mai all look to have serious claims. Absurde takes on the Galway Hurdle winner Ndaawi in a conditions hurdle that looks a match.
Cobden also teams up with Funiculi Funicula in a Beginners’ Chase where Wingmen sets a very decent standard on an official mark of 138. The Mullins runner, though, might have the scope to progress.
Cork starts its Easter festival programme with a flat card on Saturday, where Ryan Moore stays over from his Good Friday rides at the Curragh to team up with a trio of runners.
They include Nevermindtherain, who makes her debut in the opening juvenile maiden. She is a half-sister to the dual Group One winner and Guineas hopeful Puerto Rico.
Moore should also fancy his chances on the 92-rated Signora in a maiden, considering she has a run under her belt at the Curragh this season.
The English man later teams up with Joseph O’Brien for Wemightakethelongway in the Listed Noblesse Stakes. Runner-up to Minnie Hauk in last year’s Curragh Oaks, the filly is a Group Three winner already and ought to be hard to beat.
In other news, Mullins has opted to skip next week’s Aintree festival with both his Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth, the reigning champion hurdler.
Both won on the opening day of Liverpool last year, but with Dan Skelton apparently too far clear in the British trainers’ title race, Mullins appears to be concentrating his top resources on the run-in to the Irish campaign at Punchestown.
Impaire Et Passe is Mullins’s sole entry for the Bowl, won by Gaelic Warrior last season, after Friday’s acceptance stage. Brighterdaysahead, runner-up to Lossiemouth at Cheltenham, is the headline Irish name for Thursday’s Aintree Hurdle.