Honeysuckle heads an all-star cast of horses set to take action at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown this weekend.

Henry de Bromhead’s mare will team up with her trusty ally Rachael Blackmore for the 14th time and the pair are odds-on to stay unbeaten as a duo.

They are also going for a hattrick of wins in the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle and ought to be seriously difficult to beat after attaining that very sequence of wins in their previous outing in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse in November.

However, they will face a new rival in the shape of last year’s runaway Supreme Novice Hurdle winner and dual Grade 1 winner at Leopardstown in Appreciate It.

The Willie Mullins-trained gelding was earmarked for a chasing campaign but a setback has kept him off the track so far this season and he goes back to hurdling as a result. Bookmakers have rated him a legitimate threat to Honeysuckle both this weekend and next month in the Champion Hurdle.

That two-mile contest is the feature event on Sunday while the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup takes central billing on Saturday.

The three-mile chase is a potentially fascinating race as it could play host to two British raiders in the Paul Nicholls-trained Clan Des Obeaux and Frodon, who have both secured Grade 1 prizes on these shores in the last year.

Frodon was a very popular winner of the Ladbrokes Champion Chase with Bryony Frost at Down Royal while Clan Des Obeaux won the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup last April and has since finished second to Tornado Flyer when attempting to win his third King George VI Chase at Kempton.

That Willie Mullins-trained runner could take him on again along with Asterion Forlonge, unlucky to fall at the last at Kempton, and Kemboy, last year’s winner of the race. Gold Cup winner Minella Indo is also among entries.

In all there are eight Grade 1 races spread out over the two-day meeting, with over €2m in prize money up for grabs likely to attract star names such as Chacun Pour Soi and Greaneteen in the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase, along with up-and-comers as Sir Gerhard, Fil Dor, Galopin Des Champs and Journey With Me elsewhere.

Since its inauguration in 2017, the two-day meeting has been heralded a huge success, most notably last year when many felt the fierce competition of the races played a part in an edge Irish-trained horses had going to Cheltenham.

However, the meeting – or indeed the course – has not been without criticism, with the state of the ground questioned and criticised by leading trainers Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott.

The chase track at Leopardstown dries out very quickly and often leads to unsuitably dry conditions which has been enough to sway Mullins from running his two-time Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo at the meeting in recent seasons.

Last month, 160mm of irrigation was applied to the course and watering will continue this week with the ground described as yielding on both courses at present.

With that said, the going is unlikely to deter a big crowd, many of which were denied an opportunity to go racing at the track’s four-day Christmas meeting after officials made a late call to go behind closed doors (owners and course members only allowed to attend).