A SMALL field looks to be on the cards for the final day feature, the Leopardstown December Hurdle, where Klassical Dream can bounce back from his comeback defeat at Punchestown last month.

At this meeting last year the Willie Mullins gelding kicked off what proved to be a flawless campaign that yielded a trio of top-level victories with the obvious highlight being his four-and-a-half-length triumph in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

As a result of those heroics, Klassical Dream was sent off a 2/5 chance for his reappearance in the Morgiana Hurdle. However, he was beaten by two and a half lengths into third by Saldier and a resurgent Petit Mouchoir who showed signs of returning to the form that saw him win this race in 2016.

Klassical Dream should have improved plenty from that run and a look at his efforts over the course of last season shows just how well he progressed with racing as a novice hurdler. In what looks an increasingly open Champion Hurdle this son of Dream Well has an excellent opportunity to affirm his position as one of the foremost contenders for this prize.

Tough competition

Perhaps his biggest danger could be Coeur Sublime who was a most impressive Grade 2 winner at Down Royal at the start of last month. That race is light years removed from the magnitude of Sunday’s assignment but, even so, Down Royal suggested that Coeur Sublime could be a better horse this term.

He had a mixed campaign last season with the highlight being a fine second in the Triumph Hurdle.

That Triumph form which has yet to emerge as a key pointer to this season’s two-mile division but this lightly raced gelding could have progressed well in the interim.

Also, it is interesting to note that his trainer feels he is a much stronger horse this season.

Gordon Elliott has been amassing a fine record in the Grade 1 Neville Hotels Novice Chase which he has won for three of the last four years and the trainer may strike again with Battleoverdoyen.

The latter looked a horse of huge potential when winning a Grade 1 on just his second start over hurdles last January but his season ended with an abject display at Cheltenham two months later. A winning comeback over fences at Galway in October was reassuring and then he made a successful step up to Grade 2 level at Punchestown the following month.

That victory may not have convinced everyone, but in Battleoverdoyen’s defence he possibly wasn’t helped by so many fences having been omitted due to low lying sun. Furthermore, for a horse of such relative inexperience he ran to quite a good standard in disposing of the Cheltenham winner Any Second Now and the 146-rated Ex Patriot.

There is surely more to come from this strapping gelding as a chaser and the test posed by three miles over fences at Leopardstown will surely play to his strengths.

There are no shortage of credible opponents lying in wait though and the stable selected from an interesting array of Willie Mullins challengers will warrant the utmost respect.

Huge players

In addition, Minella Indo looks a huge player. He went from being a maiden over hurdles to a dual Grade 1 winner at Cheltenham and Punchestown in the space of just over six weeks last spring. His debut over fences at Gowran where he was beaten eight lengths by the star mare Laurina was more than satisfactory as the two-and-a-half-mile trip was short of his best and it was his first run of the season. He has long looked like a horse that would really come into his own as a staying chaser.

The last day of the meeting also features the Grade 3 Advent Insurance Irish EBF Mares Hurdle. This race has been a highly successful one for Willie Mullins who won it for the third time in succession in 2018 by sending out a one-two-three.

This time around the champion trainer can strike with the admirable Stormy Ireland. She has yet to win over two and a half miles but has posted a number of fine efforts at this distance, such as when finishing second in the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham. Furthermore, her overall form looks to give her an edge over her likely rivals.