Sire De Grugy and Via Galilei are set to represent Gary Moore in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury on Saturday week.
Sire De Grugy won three times in novice company last season and was far from disgraced when signing off with a fine third a Aintree in April. He was well beaten on his belated return at Chepstow earlier this month, but his trainer expects significant improvement.
"I wasn't disappointed with Sire De Grugy's run at Chepstow as he'd had a setback and we just wanted to get a run into him to get him ready for Newbury. He was also wiped out on the bend," said Moore.
Via Galilei has run with credit in a number of fiercely competitive handicaps this season and Moore, who saddled Heathcote (2007) and Wingman (2008) to win this Newbury contest in recent years, believes the ground will be key to which of his two contenders has the better chance.
"A lot will depend on the ground. If it's quicker ground, Via Galilei would have the better chance and if it's softer, that would favour Sire De Grugy," Moore added.
Moore also has Orzare and Megastar entered, but both look unlikely participants at this stage.
"If the weights go up, Orzare could also run and he would look to have a chance after running well last time on his first run in a while," the trainer added.
"But at the moment, the weights look like they'll stay pretty much the same and we don't want to run him from out of the handicap.
"Megastar has been running over fences and I was much happier with how he jumped at Lingfield last time, so we'll stick at that for a bit. Hopefully he can win a novice chase."
