Race fitness could be crucial factor in Gowran chase

Punchestown Grade 1 winner Zabana can make his race fitness count to land an interesting 2m4f conditions event (2.45) at Gowran Park on Saturday.

The seven-year-old is best suited by the race conditions in any case, but the fact that trainer Andy Lynch got a run into him at Down Royal's big meeting is the clinching factor as he takes on four rivals who are all facing a first test of the new campaign.

Second in the 2015 Coral Cup, Zabana was involved in an unfortunate incident at the start of last season's JLT Novices' Chase at Cheltenham, making his subsequent victory in the Growise Champion Novice Chase all the more popular. With only five chase runs behind him, he looks like a type who can continue to prosper at a high level. He got tired on his return at Down Royal, but that is likely to have brought him on considerably, and he should cope with the concession of 4lb to former high-class hurdler Kitten Rock whose novice chase campaign came to a premature end when he finished lame at Naas in January.