Gift Slips Up At Warwick Iris´s Gift´s totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup pretensions took a dent at Warwick when the popular grey again found the fences getting in his way. Although his chasing career has been blighted by problems with his fencing technique, the 4-5 favourite had jumped well on the whole before eventually getting too low and crumpling on landing at the fourth-last in the totepool 'A Better Way To Bet' Novices´ Chase. The 2004 Stayers´ Hurdle winner had made most of the running up to that point, although the Alan King-trained Halcon Genelardais was moving up to throw down a challenge. Iris´s Gift gave Tony McCoy no chance of staying in the saddle, his departure leaving Halcon Genelardais (5-1) well clear of the opposition in the hands of Robert Thornton. And the six-year-old, making his chasing debut, went on to win by 26 lengths from 50-1 outsider No Full, with Rebel Rhythm was another 13 lengths away in third. A deputation led by Iris´s Gift´s owner, Robert Lester, headed down the track and found the horse none the worse for his fall as he was led back to the racecourse stables. Lester said: 'It wasn´t meant to be today. Let´s just see how the horse is.' McCoy added: 'I thought I would just let him pop his way home. He was going well enough and probably would have won. 'He got in a bit tight to the fence and didn´t really make a lot of effort to stand up, to be honest. 'He did get in a bit tight, but horses have got to be learning. It was probably a similar thing to what happened when he schooled at Haydock last week. 'He keeps falling - you´d think he´d learn at some stage. 'The only thing is to keep going with him and see. Hopefully he will learn. 'Obviously he´s got an engine, there´s no doubting that. Just keep him going and if he´s in the old Pillar Chase (Letheby & Christopher Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham on January 28) let him run in it.' Halcon Genelardais gained a 12-1 quote from Cashmans for the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at Cheltenham. King said: 'He really does need it soft and our plans will depend on the ground. The SunAlliance is a possibility, he stays the trip well. 'We´ve always thought a lot of him and hoped he´d make up into a nice chaser. 'This was the ideal race to start him off in with just five runners and hopefully he will have learnt from it.' ? PA Sport
