Injury has forced Beef or Salmon out of the Down Royal race

Michael Hourigan's 11-year-old misses the chance to claim a treble in the race because of a leg injury.

The Listener, Taranis and Justified are favourites with the bookies with Strong Flow, Baron De Feypo and Light On The Broom the other declared runners.

Aitmatov, the 9/4 joint-favourite ridden by Paul Carberry, won the Anglo Irish Bank Hurdle on the opening day.

Galway Hurdle winner Farmer Brown finished second in Friday's main race with Salford City third and Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Ebaziyan fourth.

Barry Geraghty won the opening race of the day, the Alphameric Maiden Hurdle, aboard Tyreless Endeavour.

Ruby Walsh rode Uncle Junior to victory in the Allianz Maiden Hurdle and Megans Joy came home first in the EBF Novice Hurdle.

Naples, ridden by Paul Carberry, won the J.W.J. Porter & Co Beginners Chase and Kranji passed the finisher's post first in the Betfair Handicap Chase.

The final race of the day, the Archie Watson Memorial Flat race, was won by evens favourite Chateau D'eau.

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The big event in the two-day festival will be the James Nicholson Wine Merchant Champion Chase in which there will be six runners.

Talented eight-year-old Justified, an 11-time winner, will be seeking top-flight triumph number two when he tackles three miles for only the second time in the race.

We were very happy with the way he came back at Gowran and he seems right this year Justified's trainer Dusty Sheehy

Justified enjoyed his finest hour when outpointing In Compliance in the Powers Gold Cup in 2006.

And after returning with a cosy triumph over two-and-a-half miles, trainer Dusty Sheehy is in positive mood.

"We were very happy with the way he came back at Gowran and he seems right this year. Touch-wood, he'll stay right and he jumped super that day," explained the Kilkenny handler.

Taranis is expected to take his chance for champion trainer Paul Nicholls and punters have been quick to support the youngster for Kempton's King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.

The Listener, Robert Alner's talented grey, has been declared and connections are eager to run but do not want the word firm to appear in the going description.

The Listener jumped to prominence last season with a classy win in the Lexus Chase on heavy ground and Alner is hoping he will remain competitive in many of the top Irish contests.

Regarding Saturday's race, Alner said: "I'd still be worried about the ground and it'll be interesting to see how it goes.

"Nick Mitchell, my assistant, is over there and will walk it after racing and we'll see how it is.

"As long as it is genuinely good ground he'll run and obviously we want to run as the horse travelled over on Wednesday and I'm really happy with him.

"I'd just be worried if it turned good to firm and I'd reserve the judgment whether to run or not if that was the case.

"The plan was to run him four times in Ireland this season - in this race, the John Durkan, the Lexus and then the Hennessy before taking things from there."

Former Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup winner Strong Flow will represent Dessie Hughes, with Baron De Feypo and Light On the Broom completing the line-up.

Beef Or Salmon first won the three-mile feature race in 2004 by beating Kicking King and then defeated War of Attrition last year for a second victory.