Next Destination could make his eagerly-awaited debut over fences at Leopardstown next week.
The Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old has not run since the Punchestown Festival in April, when he picked up Grade One honours in the Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle.
He had previously been third to Samcro in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival – his only defeat in five starts over timber.
Owned by Malcolm Denmark, the gelding is around a 9-1 chance for the RSA Chase back at Cheltenham in March and has been entered for the two-mile-five-furlong beginners’ chase at Leopardstown on Friday.
Mullins said: “He’s ready to come out for a beginners’ chase.
“He had a little setback, but then we wouldn’t have run him on this ground anyway.
“I hope the rain is coming.”
