Anonis' run at Clonmel could determine whether he heads to Cheltenham

Anonis: Runs at Clonmel on Thursday

Margaret Mullins is waiting to see how Anonis performs at Clonmel on Thursday before deciding whether to let him head to next month's Cheltenham Festival.

The seven-year-old ran out an impressive winner of a Listed bumper at Prestbury Park in November and made a smart start to his career over obstacles in what looked a warm maiden hurdle at Leopardstown's Christmas Festival.

He was still travelling well when suffering a heavy fall behind the hugely-exciting Pont Alexandre back at Leopardstown last month and Mullins is hoping Thursday's Munster Hurdle will act as a confidence-booster ahead of a possible trip across the Irish Sea.

Mullins said: "He's in good form and going well at home, but I do think he'll need it (the run) a bit. He was a bit sore after the fall. There was nothing wrong with him as such but we just had to give him a bit of time and he missed a little bit of work.

"He wouldn't be 100% straight tomorrow, but he is well and I'm happy to be running him again. Hopefully he'll have a nice, clear round and get his confidence up.

"I'm not sure about Cheltenham. We've still got three weeks, but tomorrow's race will tell us a lot more and we'll see how he comes out of it. I didn't want to be going to Cheltenham with him off the back of the fall, so we'll see what happens."

Anonis faces six rivals including the Mouse Morris-trained Rathlin, Colm Murphy's Rye Martini and champion trainer Willie Mullins' Unika La Reconce.

A fascinating runner later in the day is 2008 Triumph Hurdle runner-up Franchoek, who makes his first appearance in almost three years having joined Eddie Harty from Alan King.The nine-year-old is a maiden after six starts over fences and lines up in the Bishop Auckland Theatre Hooligans Novice Handicap Chase under Mark Walsh.

Harty said: "It's hard to know what to expect as he only arrived here fairly recently. He seems in good form and I'm hoping he'll run a good race, but he obviously hasn't run for a very long time.

"He has been a smart horse in the past. I'm not going to improve him, but if we can get him back to near his best, hopefully we'll have a bit of fun. The ground isn't going to be ideal but it's a good race to start him back in and we'll see how we get on."