THURLES is the heart of Irish jumping country. It lies in the boglands of Co Tipperary, with some of the nation’s finest trainers for neighbours and a pub called The Horse and Jockey as its defining landmark. In these parts, they dream of Cheltenham week from one March to another. Now, with the waiting almost over, the tension is palpable.

On a squally Thursday, at Thurles’s unprepossessing racecourse, the conversation was unremittingly one-track. Not so long ago, this was the most squalid course in these islands. Think of England’s worst and it did not even come close. It still has no pretensions to grandeur but a lick of paint and a lot of local love has worked wonders.

The crowd was big yesterday, cars parked for almost a mile on the road outside. At the end of the line, a giant electronic sign flashed details of a Cheltenham Preview Night in the town. Such events are an industry in Ireland now and this was one more opportunity to spin the dream machine that the Festival has become.

Some trainers are showing the strain. Jessie Harrington, responsible for so many Irish hopes through Moscow Flyer and Spirit Leader, turned up for racing casual in jeans but far from complacent of expression. “Don’t think about it, I find that’s the only way to get by,” she said. “It’s when they leave to travel over that it will really hit home.

“Spirit Leader worked on the Curragh this morning and I hope there is more to come from her,” Harrington said. As for Moscow Flyer, her faith is unshakeable, even after hearing of the recent preview night on which an all-Irish panel sacrilegiously gave a 4-1 majority for Azertyuiop in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

There is a suspicion that the Irish lack strength in depth for this year’s Festival. Certainly that is true in the Tote Gold Cup, where the defection of Florida Pearl has left Harbour Pilot and Beef Or Salmon as the uneasy keepers of the Irish punting purse.

Paradoxically, Beef Or Salmon’s path to the race has been more troubled than a year ago, when his trainer Michael Hourigan pitched him into the highest company as a novice. A lung infection and muscular problems have interrupted his progress but Hourigan is confident that he will get to the race.

“I took him to Mallow for a racecourse gallop this morning,” Hourigan said. “He didn’t jump but I might school him over a hurdle or two at home tomorrow. I’m happy with him, but the most important fortnight is still to come. Yesterday it was Florida Pearl who dropped out, tomorrow it might be something else.”

It could be First Gold, according to Frank Berry, racing manager to his owner, J. P. McManus. “We need some rain at Cheltenham if First Gold is to run. We don’t want to mess his legs about on quick ground and I think he’d wait for the National unless we get some ease.”

Berry was also inclined to rule out the McManus-owned Specular from the Smurfit Champion Hurdle. Specular arrived in England with a huge reputation as the best hurdler in Australia but disappointed on his debut for Jonjo O’Neill at Haydock. Berry said: “It looked as if he didn’t get the trip and he might be better waiting for Aintree.”

Barry Geraghty, who rode five Cheltenham winners a year ago, took the sort of last-flight fall, in the opening race, that no jockey wants at present. A muddied face was his only penalty, though, and he fought out the next two finishes with his friend and fierce rival, Ruby Walsh.

Walsh was beaten on Adamant Approach, a likely starter in the Cathcart Chase, but prevailed in a valuable novice hurdle on Kim Fontaine, leaving his owner trying to explain to all why he had instructed Willie Mullins, the trainer, to scratch his Cheltenham entries.

Mullins is philosophical about the injury to Florida Pearl. “It might be the end of an era but we haven’t taken that decision just yet,” he said. He pondered a while on his other Festival hopes, notably the auspicious Sadlers Wings, who will run in one of the novice hurdles.

“I hope he stays sound and I still have the choice to make when it matters,” Mullins said. A rueful smile crossed his face then. “There’s still two weeks to get through, isn’t there? I read about Henrietta and her nerves today. It’s going to be a long fortnight for her.”