WE have yet to be furnished with the final field for Monday’s BoyleSports Irish Grand National, but this year’s race looks typically open and it’s not difficult to make cases for a few of these.

Being able to establish a prominent position early and maintaining it by jumping soundly has been crucial to those who have fought out the finishes of the last couple of runnings. Albeit ground conditions will be much more testing this year than has been the case the last twice, horses who race close to the pace look a solid place to start your Fairyhouse shortlist.

Ideal attributes

With that in mind, this race has the potential to shape up ideally for the Joseph O’Brien-trained Busselton, a likeable, battle-hardened front runner who is generally a reliable jumper. He has scope to improve as a six-year-old.

A winner of the Kerry National three starts ago when capitalising on the final-fence departure of Hewick, he certainly wasn’t disgraced when fifth in the Coral Gold Cup (formerly the Hennessy Gold Cup) at Newbury in November given he didn’t have an ideal time in front.

The presence of a loose horse nearby wasn’t helpful, while he probably was forced to go quicker than ideal due to the presence of Annsam, who forced the pace from the early exchanges.

His stamina is unproven at this trip, but connections would likely have been eyeing up a tilt at the Aintree equivalent of this race over even further had he been eligible for that contest (unable to run due to race conditions only allowing horses aged seven and older). All he does is gallop and there’s every chance he will stay.

It’s not worth reading too much into his last start over a completely insufficient trip in the Webster Cup, and that likely would have been a sighter for this, the race that has probably been his ultimate target all season. Odds of 25/1 - particularly with firms who offer enhanced each-way terms - look too big.

Brassil’s Boy a player

Another contender who is expected to peak for this €500,000 prize is Panda Boy, a close third in this season’s Paddy Power Chase at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival.

Trained by Martin Brassil, who deserves a change of luck after a couple of near misses at the Cheltenham Festival with Fastorslow and An Epic Song, he has always appealed as one who could land a big handicap like this and he’s probably still on the right side of the assessor off a mark of 140.

It isn’t ideal that he comes here on the back of a fall at Leopardstown last month but, provided he can cope with likely testing ground, he shouldn’t be far away.

At a much bigger price, it wouldn’t be a shock if the Gordon Elliott-trained Defi Bleu runs better than the market expects. He couldn’t be described as a model of consistency but his last two efforts have been solid and he finds himself at the right end of the weights.

The Gigginstown-owned 10-year-old handles testing ground and he has shown up well on his few starts over extreme trips; finishing second in the Cork Grand National and third in the Punchestown Grand National Trial on his only two appearances over further than three and a quarter miles.

Arguably the best run of his life came when winning on this card last year in seeing off the well-handicapped Donkey Years in a three-mile handicap chase. He looks overpriced at 33/1.

Of the remainder, Angels Dawn and Thedevilscoachman will be in their element if conditions continue to soften over the weekend.

1. Busselton (25/1)

2. Panda Boy (10/1)

3. Defi Bleu (33/1)

4. Angels Dawn (12/1)