Potential Grade 1 winners at Fairyhouse on Sunday

Three days of superb jumps racing lie in store at Fairyhouse for their Easter Festival this weekend.

The culmination is of course the Irish Grand National itself on Easter Monday, but there is some high quality fare to be served up before that.

Easter Sunday provides a double helping of Grade 1 action via the WillowWarm Gold Cup (14:22) and the Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle (16:10).

Here's a look at the potential contenders for both features races for the middle afternoon of the big meeting at Fairyhouse.

Fairyhouse Easter Festival Free Bet Offer

WillowWarm Gold Cup

This novice contest is run over two-and-a-half-miles and has been won in recent times by future Cheltenham Gold Cup heroes Al Boum Photo (2018) and Galopin Des Champs (2022) - each bagging this a year before winning the first of their successive Blue Riband scores in the Cotswolds.

To that end, anything Willie Mullins sends out will be of real interest. The Closutton chief accounts for exactly half of the 14-strong entries at this stage.

Ballyburn could be the headline act, while Mullins also has the option of running any of Champ Kiely, Fun Fun Fun, Ile Atlantique, Quai De Bourbon, Spindleberry or Tullyhill.

Gordon Elliott, meanwhile, will have the likes of Down Memory Lane, Firefox and the mare Shecouldbeanything as possible contenders, while Henry de Bromhead could send last year's Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Slade Steel here after skipping Cheltenham and Aintree.

The possibilities are completed by Common Practice for Joseph O'Brien, Noel Meade's Jesse Evans and Kilbarry Saint for Con O'Keefe.

Things didn't go to plan for Ballyburn in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at Cheltenham, but he could easily bounce back on his next start, though he was beaten here on his hurdles debut by Firefox. Could a rematch by in the offing in this Grade 1 novice heat?

Irish Stallion Farms EBF Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle

The second Grade 1 is the Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle over two-and-a-half-miles and it's a contest Mullins has dominated in the last decade or so.

The likes of Annie Power, Adriana Des Mottes, Augusta Kate, Laurina, Brady Love, Ashroe Diamond and, last year, Jade De Grugy have all won this race.

The champion trainer is bidding for four wins in a row in the race now named after the 2019 winner Honeysuckle.

There are 19 possible contenders and, unsurprisingly, Mullins accounts for seven of them. His slate includes Aurora Vega, Hey Sunshine, Karamoja, Karoline Banbou, Kmil Du Seuil, Kom Tu Voudras, Maughreen and Venusienne.

Maughreen was quite promising on her hurdles debut win at Punchestown in January and she surrendered any hopes of a win at Cheltenham last month when she was left facing the wrong way as the tapes went up. Could redemption await?

De Bromhead has Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle winner Air Of Entitlement and The Big Westerner as potential runners - the latter having finished second to Jasmin De Vaux at Cheltenham in the Albert Bartlett last time.

Elliott's Swing Davis and Sixandahalf for Gavin Cromwell are other players, while Fergal O'Brien could provide a rare British raider with That'll Do Moss.

Sixandahalf looked the winner everywhere but the line in that Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham last month, only to get nutted on the line by Air Of Entitlement under an inspired Rachael Blackmore ride.

The Snow Sky mare would surely fancy her chances of reversing that form if they clash again.