Fireworks at Fairyhouse as Apple's Jade faces nine in Hatton's Grace Hurdle

Apple's Jade is the headline act at Fairyhouse on Sunday and she will face nine rivals, including old foe Supasundae, in her attempt to complete a hat-trick in the baroneracing.com Hatton's Grade Hurdle.

Neither Benie Des Dieux nor Laurina have been declared for the Grade 1 over two and a half miles, with Willie Mullins continuing to bide his time with his two star mares. Instead the champion trainer runs Bapaume, Limini, Shaneshill and Wicklow Brave as he seeks a first win in the race since Arctic Fire in 2015.

Joseph O'Brien will be hoping Le Richebourg can prove himself to be a genuine top-level performer in the baroneracing.com Drinmore Novice Chase and the in-form trainer believes the race will tell him where he stands with the five-year-old in relation to possible Cheltenham targets next March.

O'Brien said: "Le Richebourg is a horse we have always liked and he has taken very well to chasing. I hope he can keep progressing and the next step on the ladder is the Drinmore on Sunday.

"It is obviously a big step up but it is a step up he is going to have to take in his stride if he is to be a Cheltenham horse next March. This will tell us where we stand with him. He has done nothing wrong over fences so far anyway."

O'Brien has two Grade 1 wins on his CV over jumps. Those two top-level victories arrived at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown last February with Edwulf landing the Irish Gold Cup and Tower Bridge taking the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle.

Joseph O'Brien is hungry for Grade 1 winnersCredit: Patrick McCann

Both of those were big-priced outsiders at 33-1 and 25-1 respectively, but Le Richebourg is favourite and that suits O'Brien just fine.

"It is all about the Grade 1s," O'Brien said. "Winners are great and you can never take them for granted but training racehorses is about having quality horses good enough to compete in Grade 1s. That is why I started training and that is what I get the biggest kick out of. The Grade 1s and the big handicaps are what it is all about really."

Gordon Elliott has won the Drimore with Don Cossack (2013), No More Heroes (2015) and Death Duty (2017) and he is doubly represented by Blow By Blow and Delta Work, both of whom were Cheltenham Festival winners last March.

Elliott will fancy his chances of winning the baroneracing.com Royal Bond Novice Hurdle, the first of the Grade 1s on Sunday, as he has pointed the unbeaten Commander Of Fleet in that direction along with Thursday's Thurles winner, Tintangle.

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