Reliable novice hurdler can pay a big compliment to Supreme fancy - and I'll be having a lump on him

Yet another weekend of unsettled weather means testing conditions for all the jumps meetings this weekend, including at Fairyhouse where Intense Raffles is my banker.

He is one of only four runners in the 3m1f rated novice chase (4.25) and this unexposed French recruit showed what he was made of over 2m6f at the track last time when proving much too strong for Where It All Began. That form hasn't worked out too badly with the runner-up winning a Grand National Trial at Punchestown last weekend by a very wide margin and I expect Intense Raffles to win in style.

The action at Fairyhouse kicks off with the 2m maiden hurdle (1.30) in which the Henry de Bromhead-trained Theatre Native bids to atone for a costly failure in a similar event at Clonmel last November.