Martin Pipe's Iris Bleu recorded a first victory in Britain when landing the amateur riders' handicap chase at Cheltenham's Open meeting last weekend. A 6lb rise in the weights for that success is fair but many of the horses that ran at that meeting have disappointed when returned to action quickly afterwards and, at the likely odds, the six-year-old looks opposable. With Nicky Henderson's team in such good form at present, Ifni Du Luc has to be respected although the French-bred gelding does not seem to be particularly well handicapped. Desailly and Echo's Of Dawn both have absences to overcome and are probably best watched for the time being. Infrasonic and Storm Damage, who both found one too good last time, again have place claims, as does Brendan Powell's Master Bigtime but the TEAMtalk selection is Ferdy Murphy's Historg. The seven-year-old starts the current campaign on a handy mark and, having had a pipe-opener at Kelso a week ago, fitness should not be a problem.
