J P McManus has given vent to his belief that the public are now the real owners of Istabraq. Without a doubt the horse has built up a fine rapport with his Irish fan club, not simply because he has won the last two stagings of the Smurfit Champion Hurdle but his extraordinary consistency.

Only the photo-finish camera has inflicted the two defeats since he was first put to jumping. The distance of the Duggan Brothers Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse tomorrow, namely 2m 4f is not his best trip where as his major rival, Limestone Lad, is better over the longer trip than at 2m.

Even making allowance for this, it will be astonishing if the judge has to call on the photo to sort out this finish. He cantered on Limestone Lad at Tipperary already this autumn and his victim has likewise proved to be a top-notch handicapper.

Success in a race named after Hatton's Grace would be most appropriate as barring mishaps Istabraq will himself be bidding next March to equal the half-century old record of Hatton's Grace, to this day the only Irishtrained triple Champion Hurdle winner.

Stage Affair is the first of the current crop of novices to get a Champion Hurdle quotation but it seems likely that for this season Dermot Weld will be content to target the Supreme Novices' Hurdle as his Cheltenham race.

He has only three rivals in the Grade One Pembroke Electrical Royal Bond Novice Hurdle but with a dashing front runner like Moscow Flyer in the quartet, this could be a race to savour.

There will be no odds-on favourite in the middle leg of the Grade One treble, the CPM Drinmore Novice Chase and here I nap Alexander Banquet. He has yet to be beaten at home on the flat, over hurdles or over fences and he may in time prove himself to be a tougher stayer than Florida Pearl.

Alexander Banquet was impressive at Naas last Saturday but it's possible to make at least some sort of a case for every one of his seven rivals. The only mare in the field is Sallie's Girl but she could be a real threat to the boys.

Noel Meade has another mare with which to go to battle in the bumper, Neath Native Sky. She was the stable outsider at Navan but still got herself involved in a finish in which the first four home, headed by Henni Bay, were covered by about two lengths.