John Oxx has sent out legendary Group One names such as Sinndar, Alamshar and Azamour to win at Leopardstown in the past but he is set to try and break new ground at the Dublin track this Sunday.
It's almost 25 years since the former champion flat trainer last had a runner over jumps and that brief spell at the winter game ended without success.
However, Icklingham will attempt to make up for that at the weekend as he is primed to begin a jumping career from one of the most powerful flat stables in the country.
Icklingham holds an entry at Navan on Saturday but Oxx, who has taken out a jump trainers licence especially for the Denis Reddan-owned horse, said yesterday that a maiden at Leopardstown on Sunday's AIG Champion Hurdle card is a more likely target.
"We will go for the maiden route at Leopardstown. He is in at Navan just in case there is a balloting issue," said the Curragh trainer whose only previous jump runner was Telethon in the early 1980s. "He ran twice and was second twice when ridden by Tommy Carmody."
Oxx, however, stressed that Icklingham, a three-time winner last spring who finished last in the November Handicap two months ago, is a once-off venture into the National Hunt sphere.
"We're doing it with this one because his owner was keen and didn't want to move the horse from the yard," he said. "It's not a trend and I am not turning into a jumping trainer!"
Conor O'Dwyer has been schooling Icklingham and Oxx hopes he will be available to ride the horse who is rated over 100 on the flat. "He's a smart horse who is a good jumper and a lot of Sadler's Wells horses take to jumping. He was ready to run at Christmas but had a setback. I'm not making any predictions because I don't know the opposition but he has the ability to do well if he takes to it and enjoys it," Oxx said.
"The worry might be the ground. He likes soft going on the flat but whether he will act on National Hunt mid-winter ground is another matter. He will be up against real National Hunt horses who are bred for this so we will have to see.
"He seems fine in himself although he did fracture his pelvis for three consecutive years in the past. He is obviously a little bit brittle in that area. But he is in good form now," he added.
Brave Inca is set to be the star attraction in Sunday's AIG Europe Champion Hurdle as he tries to follow up last year's defeat of his old rival, Macs Joy.
Both the latter, and his Grade One-winning novice stable companion Hide The Evidence, are on target for the race as well while the leading four-year-old Lounaos hasn't been ruled out of the AIG either.
"We will mull things over during the week when we will have a better idea of what some of the others are doing," said Lounaos' trainer, Eoin Griffin.
Also expected to figure at today's forfeit stage is the Kempton winner Jazz Messenger although the prospect of heavy ground could rule out both his stable companions, Harchibald and Iktitaf.
Very testing conditions may also see the star mare Asian Maze side-step the race in favour of a Cheltenham Festival warm-up in the Red Mills Trial at Gowran Park. The former star English hurdler Royal Shakespeare is an unlikely runner in Sunday's Baileys Arkle at Leopardstown but one horse definitely travelling to the Dublin course for his next start is the Lexus winner The Listener.
Trainer Robert Alner confirmed yesterday that the Hennessy Gold Cup on February 10th will be The Listener's next start as the confirmed mudlark continues his build-up to the Cheltenham Gold Cup. "We haven't been tempted by the Letheby & Christopher at Cheltenham this weekend. It's full steam ahead for the Hennessy," Alner said.
"We got on fine at Leopardstown last time so we're going back for more. There is more prestige in winning an Irish Hennessy so we are not going to change the plan. Everything seems to suit him down to the ground out there. After that, hopefully, it will be the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. We just need the rain to keep falling," he added.
