Thursday's Clonmel Festival Week Chase has attracted a quality field headed by former Grade One winners Cooldine and Trafford Lad.
The former looked destined for the top in the staying division following a brilliant performance in the 2009 RSA Chase at Cheltenham, but a string of indifferent performances since suggest he is a shadow of his former self.
Trafford Lad is in a similar boat, with injuries having hampered his progress having shown top-class form a few years ago.
He has had his limitations exposed in races won by Big Zeb and Rubi Light the last twice, and trainer Lar Butler is keeping his fingers crossed this sizeable drop in grade will lead to the 10-year-old getting his head in front for the first time in over three years.
"I've been waiting to run him in a race with these conditions for a while, but there hasn't been one for him," said Butler.
"He's had a lot of injury problems and wind problems over the past couple of years. Everything that can go wrong with a horse just about has gone wrong, but I'm happy with him going into this race.
"I was happy enough with his first run back in Navan and thought he'd come on a lot for it, so we went to the John Durkan thinking he'd run a decent enough race.
"Unfortunately, we left the tongue-tie off him and he went and swallowed his tongue, so it's back on again.
"It's a drop in class for him, but it's still a fair race. I suppose Cooldine is in a similar position to us in that he isn't the horse he was, so we'll see what happens."
