'He's in great order' - Bob Olinger back to try to repeat his victory of last year under new pilot Darragh O'Keeffe

Bob Olinger got his career back on track by winning this race 12 months ago and a repeat success could be on the cards under Darragh O'Keeffe, who partners the three-time Grade 1 winner for the first time with Rachael Blackmore still on the sidelines.

A fourth Grade 1 was within a nose of being added in the Aintree Hurdle at the Grand National meeting, at which he came out the wrong side of a bob of heads with Impaire Et Passe and Langer Dan. That is strong form and if the real Bob Olinger shows up here he ought to be very hard to beat.

Home By The Lee beat Bob Olinger in this two years ago and he finished third to Teahupoo in both the Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham and again at Punchestown. The worry for him is the trip and JJ Slevin will be keen for this to turn into a test rather than a sprint as he lacks the gears of some of these, most notably the favourite.

The fly in the ointment could be Jetara, who narrowly saw off Royal Eagle in a Listed mares' event at Limerick before landing a Flat maiden at the Curragh 13 days ahead. She is obviously in rude health and she got within three-and-a-quarter lengths of Ballyburn in a Grade 1 at the Punchestown festival.

That said, Bob Olinger is rated 160 and looked close to his best when we last saw him at Aintree so he gets the vote to register back-to-back wins in the race.

What they say

Henry de Bromhead, trainer of Bob Olinger
He's in really good form and it was always the plan to start back here. He'll have a similar campaign this year to last year, although he might not go back to 2m this year. Maybe we might even try a bit further with him at some stage. He's a really classy horse and we're looking forward to getting him started back.

Joseph O'Brien, trainer of Home By The Lee and Dawn Rising
Home By The Lee is a previous winner and ran well in this last season. He is versatile going-wise and it will be a good stepping stone towards the Christmas Hurdle. Dawn Rising is coming in off the back of a good run on the Flat and it will be interesting to see how he gets on back over hurdles.

Gordon Elliott, trainer of Beacon Edge, Maxxum, Zanahiyr and Royal Eagle
Jack [Kennedy] is on Zanahiyr, who is back over hurdles having run well in a few competitive handicap chases. He ran really well in this race last year. We've put blinkers on him and hopefully they will make him concentrate a bit better. It was brilliant to see Beacon Edge get his head back in front at Wetherby and he's been in mighty form of late. Maxxum has a high rating now so he deserves to take his chance in races like these. That was a big performance from him at Punchestown to win a handicap hurdle like that with so much weight. Royal Eagle is consistent and never lets us down, although she will have to improve to land a blow here.

Read Saturday's previews:

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Can Champion Chase hero Captain Guinness make another winning return in the Fortria?