Billaway will face just four rivals in the Naas Farm Machinery Hunter Chase on the Cheltenham Trials card at Naas on Saturday.
The reigning champion hunter chaser has won the Naas contest in each of the last three years, with his success in the 2022 renewal over stable companion Good Bye Sam coming before he went on to win at both the Chelltenham and Punchestown festivals.
However the 11-year-old could only finish 20 lengths behind David Christie’s Ferns Lock on his return to action at Thurles last month and supporters of the Turner Family-owned Well Chosen gelding will be hoping for an improved performance from him ahead of his bid to retain his Cheltenham crown for which he is a general 8/1 shot.
David Christie had entered both Winged Leader and Ultimate Optimist for the Naas contest, but he has elected not to declare any of his horses for the race, but Sean McParlan does run his French import Le Malin, who ran Winged Leader to win a length-and-a-half at Cragmore last month.
The two-time winner in France when with Francois Nicolle is a very lightly-raced nine-year-old and also got within a length of the current Cheltenham ante-post favourite Vaucelet at Portrush in the autumn.
Grand Island supplied jockey Mikey O’Connor with his 500th success between the track and point-to-points when winning a maiden hunter chase at Clonmel, while Billaway is set to be joined on Saturday by his formerly 154-rated stable companion Annamix who has had two recent outings in open company for Aidan Fitzgerald.
The five-strong field is completed by the Robcour-owned Dinny Lacey who has eight lengths to find with Le Malin from his recent open debut at Cragmore.
