Take a chance on Tell The Nipper

Imperial Call, the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, bids to resurrect his career under new management at Limerick tomorrow where his presence in the £20,000 Murphys Munster National has pushed every one of his opposition well out of the handicap.

Now trained by Raymond Hurley, following the retirement of Fergie Sutherland, Imperial Call hasn't run since February when pulled up lame in the Hennessy at Leopardstown.

It was the latest in a series of injuries that have plagued this brilliant horse since that vintage couple of months in 1996. If back to that sort of form tomorrow's race will be a stroll, but his new trainer is as much in the dark about that as anyone.

"He appears to be in good form but we will see how he runs before making any plans for the winter," Hurley said yesterday.

Hardly confidence inspiring stuff and with a watching brief on Imperial Call maybe Tell The Nipper will be the one to take the prize. Michael Hourigan's horse is 19lbs wrong at the weights but everything else is wrong too and the advantage of Limerick is that Tell The Nipper's tendency to jump right should be negated. He should also have come on sharpness wise for a run in the Kerry National.

Apart from that, the man to follow looks to be another local trainer. Andrew McNamara has a fine team of young horses for this winter and the cream of them look to be running tomorrow.

Daraheen Chief was third on the flat to Cochis Run at Thurles last time out but previous to that showed an excellent turn of foot on soft ground to impressively win a hurdle at Listowel. He will be very hard to beat in the novices hurdle while Mr Lundy can make it two out of two in the Newenham bumper.

Glin Castle was another winner for McNamara at Listowel and he should have sharpened up considerably for that race, certainly enough to make him the one to be on in the novices chase.