IRISH trainers have provided four of the last five winners of the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch (2.40) and have a very good chance of making it five in six, with 10 out of the 34 runners representing five different trainers.

The raiding party is headed by Pied Piper, who indeed heads the whole market with Gordon Elliott’s five-year-old priced no bigger than 5/1 in the markets last night.

Third to Vauban in the Triumph Hurdle two National Hunt seasons back, Pied Piper probably performed above par in his first season in open company last term. He won twice early in the campaign and his fourth to State Man in the Irish Champion Hurdle was a creditable effort. He was then unlucky just to miss out on the County Hurdle under a possibly under-strength Davy Russell ride.

He warmed up for this with a decent run on the flat in a qualified riders race at Killarney and Elliott confirmed to The Irish Field that this has been a long term plan.

“We’ve had this race in mind for him for a long way off,” he said. “He’s in really good form and we’re delighted with him. He looks like he’s on a mark that he could run very well off so we’re really looking forward to it.

“On another day, if the ball hopped his way, he easily could have won the County Hurdle off a mark of 154. This is a different sort of test but he travels well and hopefully he’ll get a good tow into the race. Obviously having Ryan Moore on your side is a big plus.”

It’s 21 years since Moore won this race as a 5lb claimer on the Martin Pipe-trained Miss Fara, just getting the better of Dermot Weld’s Direct Bearing, ridden by Pat Smullen.

Since that year, 11 more trainers predominantly associated with jumps horses have sent out the winner here, which includes the last five straight, and seven of the last nine.

Willie Mullins has provided three of those winners and is mob handed again with five runners: Jackfinbar (Rachael Blackmore), MC Muldoon (Danny Tudhope), Lot Of Joy (William Buick), Zenon (Saffie Osborne) and Mr Escobar (Siobhan Rutledge). However, somewhat surprisingly, not one of them was trading below odds of 33/1 yesterday evening.

Noel Meade is double handed with Jesse Evans and Sheishyrbid, with the former rated as one of the main contenders.

Jesse Evans runs in the Cork colours for Jack Singleton and a number of his friends, which had included the legendary hurler/footballer Teddy McCarthy, who sadly passed away this year.

Remarkably the horse finished second in the Galway Hurdle for the second year in a row, having finished fourth three years back. He has been an excellent servant, however, and provided Singleton and co with a win in the Kingdom Gold Cup before finishing fourth in the Irish equivalent of this race. On that showing, he is officially 6lb well in today.

The multi-talented The Shunter is the other Irish-trained runner towards the top of the market. Emmet Mullins’ 10-year-old was a late withdrawal from the Irish Cesarewitch.

He bids to add a marquee flat handicap to go with his marquee wins over hurdles (Greatwood/Morebattle) and fences (Paddy Power Plate).