Racing News: Iris's Gift will bid to emulate the mighty Istabraq next Thursday by winning Graded races at the Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown Festivals in the same season.
Jonjo O'Neill's grey is reported to be "better than ever" as he heads for the € 125,000 Grade One Ballymore Properties Champion Stayers' Hurdle.
Iris's Gift travels to Punchestown on the back of victories in the bonusprint.com Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Martell Cognac Laurel Pub Company Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree. Only Istabraq has scored in Graded events at the three big meetings in the same year, achieving the feat in 1999.
For Iris's Gift's owner Robert Lester, landlord of the Red Cow pub at Nantwich, Cheshire, next week is the continuation of a dream.
Lester bought Iris's Gift out of a field for £5,000 from the horse's locally-based breeder, former jockey Reg Crank, and the son of Gunner B has now won 11 of his 15 starts and more than £270,000 in prize money.
"I've just been talking to the lad who looks after him as well as Jonjo's head lad, and Iris's Gift is actually better than ever since Aintree. He seems to have come on again," said Lester.
"The frightening thing about it all is that Jonjo thinks this horse could be the best he has been involved with. He told me that of all the great horses he has been associated with, like Dawn Run and Sea Pigeon, nothing has got to him like this one.
"It's a dream to own him. You couldn't have written the script and he's such a lovely-natured horse. Although he can be a monkey on the racecourse, he's really just a gentle giant."
Iris's Gift's fan club will accompany Lester to Ireland.
"There's about 50 of us going over from seven different airports. We have family and friends travelling over from Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire, Lancashire and Cheshire and all over the place to support him," he added.
"I'm going out on Wednesday morning and coming back on Friday afternoon. I first went to the Punchestown Festival two years ago and just love it - the atmosphere is great, the people are so warm and friendly and we are looking forward to a bit more of their hospitality next week."
Native Upmanship has been supplemented at a cost of €15,000 to take on Moscow Flyer in the Champion Chase. Jessica Harrington's 10-year-old, the winner of 13 of his 18 starts over fences, is one of nine preliminary entries in the Grade One Betdaq.com Champion Chase.
Moscow Flyer will be bidding to make amends for blundering and unseating Barry Geraghty at the second-last when in the lead in the race 12 months ago.
There are 23 entries in the opening Kildare Hunt Club Chase, including Martell Cognac Grand National faller Takagi, while the 23 in the Grade Three Ellier Developments Novice Chase include five from Britain.
These are headed by Victor Dartnall's Lord Sam, while the home team includes Powers Gold Cup winner Hi Cloy and Frances Crowley's Nil Desperandum.
There are huge numbers in both the Murphy International Ltd Handicap Hurdle, with 52 engaged, and the €100,000 Bewleys Hotels and EBF National Hunt Champion Bumper.
The going at Punchestown is currently soft, and Richie Galway, racing manager at the course, said: "We had six millimetres of rain yesterday and it has been dry and bright this morning with mild temperatures. Conditions are set to remain dry tomorrow and over the weekend, with temperatures staying mild." The four-day Punchestown Festival features record prize money of over €1.7 million.
The other Grade one event on the card, the Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle, has 20 entries including five from Britain.
They are Dempsey (trained by Mark Pitman), Dictum (Sue Nock), Ela Re (Conor Dore), Overstrand (Mary Reveley) and Royal Shakespeare (Steve Gollings).
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