Gift Set For Weekend Return

Iris´s Gift is in line to make his seasonal debut in a novice chase at Market Rasen on Saturday if the ground is suitable.

The 2004 Stayers´ Hurdle hero is reported to be ahead of schedule and if given the go ahead for the Blue Square Novices´ Chase he would be the star attraction at the Lincolnshire track.

The eight-year-old, trained by Jonjo O´Neill, was restricted to just one run in the last campaign, coming last of five finishers behind It Takes Time in a Grade One chase at Lingfield last February, on what was his debut over fences.

At that time he had been talked of as a potential candidate for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.

He is generally available at 25-1 for chasing´s blue riband event next March.

'If the ground is on the easy side of good he´ll run. If not, he´ll go to Bangor, my local track, next month,' said owner Robert Lester.

'He´s in great form and ready to run, which is why Jonjo has brought his reappearance forward. He´s knocking the white railings down at home and that means he wants to race.

'He had a racecourse gallop at Bangor, the meeting before last. I was there and didn´t find out he was coming until halfway through the meeting.

'Jonjo kept it a secret and it was a great surprise - he did a great piece of work.

'Obviously we´ll learn a lot more after his first run.

'Last season was very frustrating. He wasn´t right when he ran at Lingfield and the stable was under a cloud so we decided to write the season off completely and put him away.

'He did really well and got as fat as a pig. He came back in the yard in July and started off nice and steady. The feeling from the stable is that he´s better than ever.

'We´ll learn what we can on Saturday and take it from there. The expectations were too high last season. The main aim at the moment is to get that first run out of the way.'

The going at Market Rasen is currently good, good to firm in places and watering as necessary.

(C) PA Sport