Although Mossbank’s participation will depend on the ground among other factors, three-time race winner and Lexus fourth Beef Or Salmon is on course for a fifth attempt on the race.

“We don’t have to declare him (Mossbank) until Friday week so we will wait and see what the ground is and everything else,” said Hourigan.

“I’ll discuss it with (owner) Michael O’Leary through the week but the Ryanair Chase is the plan for him at the moment.

“If the ground was drying out the way it is at the moment, Mossbank would be the most likely one but Salmon would run one way or the other.”

Beef Or Salmon boasts an admirable record having won 10 Grade One events with six of those victories having come at Leopardstown.

The 12-year-old could be set for a different kind of challenge later in the season though, with a Grand National bid on Hourigan’s mind.

“He will be entered in the Irish and Aintree Nationals – it will be either one or the other,” he told At The Races.

“It wouldn’t be the end of the world if we didn’t go to Aintree, he’s done the yard very well and he’s been a super horse all round. I wouldn’t like anything to happen to him.

“The boys that ride him all say he’d love Aintree and they know, but his jumping has been much better in the last couple of years than it was.”

If Beef Or Salmon does not make the Aintree field, Hourigan has another contender in Hi Cloy, available at a best-priced 50-1 with William Hill despite his Kinloch Brae Chase win last time.

“He will certainly go down that (Aintree) road,” Hourigan said.

“He might go to the Red Mills (Chase) but there’s a race at Ascot the same weekend over two miles, five and a half furlongs.

“They’re the two races I have planned for him at the moment.”

The Commercial First Ascot Chase on February 16 has also been pencilled in as a possible target for Gold Cup favourite Kauto Star.