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.