AFTER an understandable lull after the Cheltenham Festival, the jumps world hops back into action again this long weekend via the Easter Festival at Fairyhouse, which can often be a little underappreciated, but offers some really top fare, particularly tomorrow’s eight-race card.

Two Grade 1s, one with 18 runners and another featuring an intriguing trilogy clash (both previewed in detail in the following pages), a couple of really competitive Grade 2s, two quality betting handicap hurdle heats and a bumper which often provides a real smart one, this looks well worth the entry fee.

The Grade 2 contests are both for novice hurdlers, over two miles and over two and a half miles, the latter Paddy Kehoe Suspended Ceilings Novice Hurdle (3.10), looks the pick with Edward O’Grady’s No Flies On Him topping the market.

The J.P. McManus-owned gelding went into many a notebook after a stylish maiden hurdle win at Leopardstown over Christmas but he couldn’t live with Tullyhill in a listed event at Punchestown on his latest start, and now tries this trip for the first time.

“We think it will suit him,” O’Grady told The Irish Field when asked about the step up in distance. “He is very well but I feel his reputation may have preceded him and I don’t know if the bar has been set too high because the two races he has run in haven’t worked out terribly well, which has been disappointing.

“When he did win at Leopardstown, he did it on good ground. It must have been the last time we had good ground because it seems like it has rained every day since, and I’m not sure if heavy ground is what he wants.

“At Punchestown, it was the first time he had been off the bridle in his life and it was probably a shock to the system because he looked babyish. I hope it helped him to grow up. Long term, I think he will be a superb chaser.”

The other Grade 2, the Donohoe Marquees Novice Hurdle (3.45), features another J.P. McManus horse who had an even bigger reputation, but also has yet to really deliver, in the Willie Mullins-trained Mirazur West.

The full-brother to Ferny Hollow returns to the scene of his course-and-distance win but will need to settle much better than he did at Naas when only third to stablemate Fun Fun Fun, who takes on the Grade 1 mares’ novice hurdle earlier on the card.

Mullins has won this two-mile contest seven times in the last nine renewals and even if Mirazur West fails to fire, he’ll probably win it with Naas maiden hurdle winner Tounsivator or the talented Western Diego, who were second and third favourites in the market on Friday evening.