TRAINER Paul Nicholls can enhance his reputation for shrewdness by taking the Yarcombe Novices' Handicap Hurdle at Taunton today with Lake Kariba. He is giving the five year old his jumping debut in a handicap in which he must carry automatic top weight of 12st.

Such a policy outlawed on the Flat would present an ordinary horse with a very difficult task first time out. But Lake Kariba is no ordinary horse. He was a very smart middle distance stayer on the Flat in Ireland for Charles, O'Brien, placed in Listed company on several occasions.

The gelding was sold for 66,000 guineas at the Newmarket sales last autumn and is potentially a top class novice hurdler. So he is almost certainly thrown in at the weights today on the same mark as All Clear, whose only success to date came in a seller at Uttoxeter.

Nicholls is sure to have schooled this exciting prospect intensively and it will be a disappointment if Lake Kariba cannot make a winning debut over hurdles.