IRIS’S GIFT confirmed his position as this season’s champion staying hurdler with an impressive win in the Martell Cognac Laurel Pub Company Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree yesterday.

Carrie Ford struck a blow for women riders - and new mums - by winning the Martell Cognac Fox Hunters' Chase on Forest Gunner, trained by her husband Richard.

Conditional jockey Tom Best recorded the biggest win of his career on Toby Balding’s Accipiter in the £40,000 (€59,700) Cantor Odds Handicap Hurdle at Ascot.