Arverne toughs it out to open account Arverne justified some good support to open his account at the ninth attempt in the Visit Irishracingyearbook.com For The Perfect Racing Gift Handicap Chase at Punchestown. The Gavin Cromwell-trained gelding, runner-up over course and distance on his previous start, was backed from 9/4 into 6/4 favourite before the off and showed good reserves of stamina in this extended 3m1f event. Mark Walsh’s mount led at the penultimate fence, and held off the strong staying Atlantic Shore on the run-in to score by a length and a quarter. The pair drew 18 lengths clear of the front-running Wishmoor, with Frankly All Talk in fourth. Cromwell’s assistant Feidhlim Cunningham said, “He’s been a little bit disappointing so far so it’s good to get that under his belt. “Mark said he jumped a bit better than the last day. He was tired coming to the last and just grinded it out from there.”
