Gift ready for Bangor test

Iris’s Gift will face seven rivals as the 2004 Stayers’ Hurdle winner gets his third taste of fences in public at Bangor tomorrow.

The eight-year-old grey duly obliged in a novice chase over an extended two and three-quarter miles at Market Rasen two weeks ago in his first race for seven months.

The gelding, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, now has to give weight all round and drops back two furlongs for the Bright Future Novices’ Chase at his owner Robert Lester’s local track.

“I walked the course on Wednesday and the ground was good. They watered yesterday and I hope it buckets down before racing. There is some rain forecast overnight,” said Lester, a publican at Nantwich just over 20 miles from Bangor.

“What does concern me is the trip. He wants three miles plus but there aren’t many options for him at the minute.

“He’s come on for that first run and we need to get more experience into him and then see where we go. I just hope we can beat the attendance record. I think everybody in the area is coming. The funny thing is there’s a bit more pressure on because it’s my local track.”

The opposition includes the Paul Nicholls-trained Mount Karinga, Easter Present from Henrietta Knight’s stable and Nigel Twiston-Davies’s Irish Raptor.

Iris’s Gift is 20-1 with the sponsors for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.