Chacun Pour Soi takes on stablemate Bachasson in the Bar One Racing Chase at Cork on Sunday.
Chacun Pour Soi has won six times at Grade One level over fences, but has been beaten in each of his three previous races this season and was last of nine in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham last month.
The 11-year-old steps down in grade but up in trip for this weekend's three-mile Grade Three – and his biggest danger appears to be fellow Willie Mullins -trained gelding Bachasson, who recently made a successful return from over two years on the sidelines at Clonmel.
Patrick Mullins, assistant to his father, said: "Bachasson has won 16 races in total and won his last six. He has never won over three miles, although he did run in a Gold Cup and I don't see why it should be a problem.
"The bigger worry is maybe coming back quick after a long lay-off, but he seems to have come out of his Clonmel race very well and no doubt he will run well again.
"He has been an incredible horse and is a real yard favourite. Usually as (grey) horses get older they get white but he seems to be a Peter Pan and a steel grey which is quite unusual."
Of Chacun Pour Soi, he added: "He is stepping up to three miles and it is a little bit of a shot in the dark. He has to give away an awful lot of weight, which won't make life easy on him either.
"But Chacun Pour Soi has won at Cork before so we are just hoping he can get somewhere back to his best form as he doesn't seem to be at his best this season so far."
The Mullins pair head a five-strong field, with Ronald Pump (Ciaran Murphy), Feronily (Emmet Mullins) and The Little Yank (John Ryan) completing the quintet.
