GIGGINSTOWN House Stud will be odds-on to own the winner of the 2015 JNwine.com Champion Chase as both Don Cossack and Road To Riches remain in the mix for the Grade 1 chase at Down Royal on Saturday week, October 31st.

Last year’s winner, and subsequent Gold Cup third, Road To Riches is being aimed at a return for the €140,000 event although he was revealed to have suffered a slight setback by injured jockey Paul Carberry at this week's launch in The Harp Bar in Belfast.

It is looking increasingly likely that Gigginstown House could target their fourth win in five renewals by sending the highest rated steeplechaser in Britain and Ireland, Don Cossack, instead.

The Gordon Elliott-trained gelding got his season off to a successful start last week in a Graded 3 event at Punchestown, a race he won a year previously before turning up at Down Royal just over a fortnight later to win the Grade 2 Powers Irish Whiskey Chase.

Continuing the trend of recent years, eight of the 21 entries are English-based, with long-time supporter, Paul Nicholls providing three.

The Nicholls-trained Kauto Star won the race twice and Manor Farm will be represented by at least one of King George specialist Silviniaco Conti, the highly promising Saphir Du Reu and last year’s runner-up, Rocky Creek.

Also entered are Many Clouds, who went to post as joint second favourite in the Gold Cup before winning the Grand National, and the locally-owned pair, Apache Stronghold and Texas Jack.

One man who won’t be involved is Carberry however. The Meath rider, who piloted Florida Pearl to claim the inaugural running of this race in 1999 and was on board Road To Riches last year, is targeting another festival for his comeback from a broken leg suffered in Listowel last month.

“The kick-off of the real National Hunt season is (the Down Royal) weekend. Hunting season starts the same day, which is difficult for me,” joked the hunting enthusiast.

“Road To Riches was on target but he was off for four or five days with a bit of a setback but he might still be there but I’m sure Gigginstown won’t be shy of horses in it anyway. 'Apache' is in good form as well.

“It’s looking like Cheltenham for me at this stage. I’ll have to poach a few rides as someone else will be riding them all winter!”

Carberry was joined by fellow jockey Johnny Burke, former weigh room colleague and now trainer Andrew McNamara, and television pundits Mick Fitzgerald and Matt Chapman at the launch.

Down Royal general manager Mike Todd revealed that a slight shuffling of the order of events would enable Channel 4 to televise the Champion Chase, while At The Races will cover the entire meeting as is customary.

Todd also moved to allay any fears surrounding ground conditions given the recent unseasonal dry weather.

“Our objective is to have ground which is yielding. I can assure you that the trainers will have the ground that we put on each year. We work very hard and we know what we’re doing. We use all of our resources to ensure we have proper National Hunt ground."

On Thursday the ground at Down Royal was described as good to yielding following 15mm of rain over the previous two days. The weather forecast is unsettled.