Weekend Punt

It's the Hennessy Gold Cup this weekend, but don't let that distract you from a couple of fascinating Grade 1 novice events at Fairyhouse on Sunday.

Champagne Fever, who showed real guts in bumpers last year, is the early favourite for the Royal Bond Hurdle.  He has the look of a horse who'll be better over fences in time, so it's a question of deciding whether to oppose him with something likely to reach its peak over timber.

While we're pondering that, the one that really stands out in the early markets is the badly named Arvika Ligeonniere in the Drinmore Chase.

After a fair career over hurdles (4th in the 2010 Albert Barlett) he got himself sidelined for a couple of years.  "They never come back, do they?" I hear you say. Well, perhaps not, but he looked an absolute natural on his long-awaited return to the racecourse in May, which introduced him to the big black ones he was destined to jump.

We'll find out if he's a contender soon enough, and at 100/30 with Ladbrokes we should be having a healthy enough bet on him if we make his chances no worse than 5/2. To be precise - these numbers suggest a bet of 7% of your bank, and from a sporting point of view we can only hope the rain doesn't lash down too much between now and then.

Arvika - born to jump the big ones