Gift Ready For Bangor Test Iris´s Gift will face seven rivals as the 2004 Stayers´ Hurdle winner gets his third taste of fences in public at Bangor tomorrow. The eight-year-old grey duly obliged in a novice chase over an extended two and three-quarter miles at Market Rasen two weeks ago in his first race for seven months. The gelding, trained by Jonjo O´Neill, now has to give weight all round and drops back two furlongs for the Bright Future Novices´ Chase at his owner Robert Lester´s local track. 'I walked the course on Wednesday and the ground was good. They watered yesterday and I hope it buckets down before racing. There is some rain forecast overnight,' said Lester, a publican at Nantwich just over 20 miles from Bangor. 'What does concern me is the trip. He wants three miles plus but there aren´t many options for him at the minute. 'He´s come on for that first run and we need to get more experience into him and then see where we go. 'I just hope we can beat the attendance record. I think everybody in the area is coming. The funny thing is there´s a bit more pressure on because it´s my local track.' The opposition includes the Paul Nicholls-trained Mount Karinga, Easter Present from Henrietta Knight´s stable and Nigel Twiston-Davies´s Irish Raptor. Iris´s Gift is 20-1 with the sponsors for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.(C) PA SportIris´s Gift will face seven rivals as the 2004 Stayers´ Hurdle winner gets his third taste of fences in public at Bangor tomorrow. The eight-year-old grey duly obliged in a novice chase over an extended two and three-quarter miles at Market Rasen two weeks ago in his first race for seven months. The gelding, trained by Jonjo O´Neill, now has to give weight all round and drops back two furlongs for the Bright Future Novices´ Chase at his owner Robert Lester´s local track. 'I walked the course on Wednesday and the ground was good. They watered yesterday and I hope it buckets down before racing. There is some rain forecast overnight,' said Lester, a publican at Nantwich just over 20 miles from Bangor. 'What does concern me is the trip. He wants three miles plus but there aren´t many options for him at the minute. 'He´s come on for that first run and we need to get more experience into him and then see where we go. 'I just hope we can beat the attendance record. I think everybody in the area is coming. The funny thing is there´s a bit more pressure on because it´s my local track.' The opposition includes the Paul Nicholls-trained Mount Karinga, Easter Present from Henrietta Knight´s stable and Nigel Twiston-Davies´s Irish Raptor. Iris´s Gift is 20-1 with the sponsors for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.(C) PA Sport
