Majborough and Ile Atlantique face off in Irish Arkle

Majborough puts his towering reputation to the test in an all-star clash with stablemate Ile Atlantique in the Goffs Irish Arkle Novice Chase at Leopardstown on Saturday.

It was on this day 12 months ago when the strapping gelding first gave a hint at his high-class potential in finishing third in the Grade One juvenile hurdle on the Dublin Racing Festival card.

However, better was still to come and he marched on to Triumph Hurdle glory at the Cheltenham Festival, reversing form with Kargese for a victory that had connections excited for the future.

He made a foot-perfect start to life over the larger obstacles at Fairyhouse before Christmas and will be a warm order to give Willie Mullins a fifth Irish Arkle success on the spin.

“He looked Arkle material there (at Fairyhouse), he handled Leopardstown well (last year), so we’d be very keen going back,” said Mullins.

“My heart went in my mouth (during his chasing debut) and when you’ve a horse of that calibre, I find other people enjoy them more than I do. I enjoy other people’s horses because there’s no pressure.

“We’ll let him go in the Arkle (at Cheltenham), then we’ll decide whether to go back to Fairyhouse or to Aintree for the two-and-a-half-mile Grade One.

“I’d imagine soft ground would be better, he has a lovely action. He’s another one that I probably need to keep a bit fresher at home.”

Majborough is unlikely to have things all his own way in his first top-level assignment over the larger obstacles and supporters will be wary of the fact the Closutton first string has been beaten by a stablemate the past two years.

This time around, it will be Ile Atlantique who will be attempting to keep the favourite honest, having produced two fine performances over fences so far, including when comfortably accounting for Gordon Elliott’s reopposing Firefox at Naas last time.

With his best form coming on soft ground, his connections are wary of drying conditions in the Irish capital. However, they are willing to take their chance in a race that could provide plenty of clues for the rest of Ile Atlantique’s season.

“It’s all systems go and the horse has been in great form since he last ran at Naas,” said Sean Graham, owner Tony Bloom’s racing manager.

“The one thing I would say is that although they had rain at Leopardstown during the week, it’s been dry since and they say it could be yielding ground on the chase course and we might really want it slower than that.

“However, he’s in great form and hopefully we can give Majborough some sort of race anyway. We’ve never been scared of taking on a short-priced favourite, no matter how short in the market it may be and anything can happen, plenty of favourites have been beaten at these meetings in the past.

“The ground when he won at Naas was heavy and it suited him but if he were to go and win on Saturday, you would see no reason why we wouldn’t be sticking at two miles, but maybe if he gets beat and Paul (Townend) says he doesn’t have quite the pace, we could look at a step up in trip in the future.

“He’s an exciting horse for us going forward and hopefully both horses jump round on Saturday and we can find out which one is the best.”

As well as Firefox, Elliott will saddle Touch Me Not, who won the Craddockstown Novice Chase at Punchestown before chasing home L’Eau Du Sud in the Grade One Henry VIII at Sandown.

Patrick Neville is responsible for British raider Here Comes Georgie, with the giant Jeannot Lapin – a shock 150-1 winner over the track and trip on what was his debut under rules in December – completing the six-strong field.

Jeannot Lapin’s trainer Gearoid O’Loughlin said: “He’s in great form, I couldn’t be happier with him.

“He’d been working very well before Christmas and had been showing us all the right signs. We thought we might as well go for a good race rather than an average one and it worked out.

“If the race (Irish Arkle) was on a different track, maybe you wouldn’t even consider it, but he’s obviously won at the track now. It’s probably turned out to be a better race than what I thought it was going to be, as we were kind of hoping Willie would only run one and Gordon would only run one, but it is what it is.

“I think our horse has come forward, he’ll obviously need to, but we can give it a go while he’s in good form and we can always come down in class after if we need to. You never know what can happen.”