Passion Out For Compensation

Wild Passion heads a high-class field for the Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle on the first day of the Punchestown Festival tomorrow. Noel Meade´s five-year-old bounced back from a disappointing fourth behind Marcel at Sandown to finish a good second to Arcalis in the Letheby & Christopher Supreme Novices´ Hurdle at last month´s Cheltenham Festival.

He will face seven rivals when he bids to go one better in tomorrow´s Grade One contest.

'He´s in good form. There have been no complications since Cheltenham and everything is OK,' Meade said today.

'He was disappointing at Sandown, maybe some of my horses weren´t just firing at that stage.'

His rivals include Publican, who finished seventh in the Cheltenham race but was an impressive winner at Naas on his previous start.

Other interesting contenders include Arthur Moore´s The Railway Man and the Michael O´Brien-trained In Compliance.

Meade saddles Sir Oj in the Ellier Developments Novices´ Chase, a race in which Jonjo O´Neill has declared Quazar.

Sir Oj ran twice at the Cheltenham Festival, finishing unplaced in the Arkle Challenge Trophy before recording a decent fourth behind King Harald in the Jewson Novices´ Handicap Chase.

'He´s in good form as well,' Meade continued. 'He got over Cheltenham very well because he had a rough Cheltenham with two runs.

'It was debatable which race we would run him in tomorrow and I´m not sure I made the right decision. I maybe should have gone for the handicap but decided to go with this one instead.

'He´s in good shape so we decided to give it a go.'

Quazar returned to form with a convincing victory under Tony McCoy at Cheltenham earlier this month.

In tomorrow´s Grade Two contest he will be reunited with Tony Dobbin, who has won seven times on the gelding including when he beat Back In Front in the Emo Oil Champion Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival two years ago.

Robert Alner´s Duncliffe is the other British-trained runner in a race which also features Forget The Past and Davenport Milenium.

Other runners from Britain on the opening afternoon are Basilea Star (Ferdy Murphy) and Keepthedreamalive (Bob Buckler) in the Tote Ireland 75th Anniversary Handicap Hurdle, Its A Dream (Nicky Henderson) in the Goffs Land Rover Bumper and Transit (Brian Ellison) in the Mountbrook Homes Handicap Chase.

? PA Sport