Gold Cup still on Gift's agenda

Iris’s Gift may have just one outing over fences before a possible tilt at the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Last year’s Stayers’ Hurdle winner has yet to run this season after suffering two hairline fractures of a cannonbone on the gallops in August.

Although the eight-year-old has recovered from that setback, trainer Jonjo O’Neill’s yard is currently laid low with sickness and he has not had a runner since St Stephen's Day.

Owner Robert Lester still hopes Iris’s Gift will make the March 18 contest though, even if he only has one prep run.

Lester told the Racing Post: “He will definitely be in the Gold Cup and that remains the ambition. Jonjo has gone away for a break but before he went he said he would put him in.

“It could be the same scenario as last year when he had one run three weeks beforehand and then won the Stayers’ Hurdle. It is in the lap of the gods but it has been a fairytale so far.”