O'Brien happy to let McManus youngsters go head to head in Royal Bond

Joseph O’Brien is happy to let two of JP McManus's unbeaten hurdlers, Le Richebourg and Early Doors, go toe-to-toe in the Grade 1 Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday.

Le Richebourg has not been seen since extending his winning run over hurdles to three with a commanding display at the Galway festival in July, but Sunday’s race will provide a different test of the four-year-old’s credentials, according to the trainer, who won the Melbourne Cup this month with Rekindling.

He said: “We decided against giving Le Richebourg a prep run for this, but he's very well. This will be a different test to running around during the summer, as it's a very good race and he has to handle winter ground as well.”

O'Brien's other entry Early Doors is unbeaten since embarking on his hurdling career at Wexford in October and confirmed himself a promising recruit with victory in the Grade 3 Fishery Lane Hurdle at Naas.

O'Brien said: "Early Doors was good at Naas and will handle the ground on Sunday. We weren't surprised with how he did things at Naas as he was a very good bumper horse.”

McManus is also due to be represented by the Noel Meade-trained Red Jack, unbeaten in three starts. Speaking on Thursday, Meade said: “The plan is to run him. It looks a hot race but I'm happy with him.”

Gordon Elliott supplies the general 2-1 favourite Mengli Khan, as well as Hardline and Morgan, while Willie Mullins has entered Makitorix.

McManus's Espoir D'Allen will bid to confirm himself a genuine Triumph Hurdle candidate in the Bar One Racing Juvenile Hurdle. Trained by Gavin Cromwell, Espoir D’Allen is priced up at odds of 10-11 and shades favouritism over 11-10 shot Mitchouka, trained by Gordon Elliott.

Meanwhile, Fairyhouse manager Peter Roe has described the ground as good.

He said: "Brendan Sheridan [clerk of the course] was in on Thursday morning and he's very happy with the ground.

"We are calling the ground good at the moment and it's a mainly dry forecast between now and the weekend."

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