Aside from Ancient Greeks, the group to be most wary of when bearing gifts are bookmakers.

They are not noted for generosity of spirit but there is one current offer which may prove to be just that. For those brave enough to take it.

Trainer Nicky Henderson is easy to spot in a racecourse crowd as on the sleeve of his jacket you will find his heart, which will be pounding its fastest if Sprinter Sacre runs at Ascot on Saturday.

The horse who was regarded as jump racing's answer to Frankel, is due to run in the Sodexo Clarence House Chase, for which he is likely to start odds-on favourite. So far so 2013 for the horse who has been odds against only once in 11 starts over fences, winning 10 of them.

However, it was the 11th that changed so much. Sprinter Sacre has not run since suffering from a fibrillating heart condition when pulled up in the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton Park 13 months ago. Despite that absence he is ante-post favourite for the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March. Two years ago he won the race by 19 lengths as a 1-4 favourite. Now he is still available at odds of 5-2, posing the question of whether this is the road to riches or the path to penury.

Two weeks ago Sprinter Sacre turned out at Newbury for a schooling session in which he jumped five fences and galloped for a mile. That was enough for Ladbrokes to cut his price for the Champion Chase from 3-1 to 2-1, with others following their lead.

Trying to get a steer on how much of that awesome ability Sprinter Sacre retains is impossible until he has run in a race but two top chasers who overcame something similar were Barnbrook Again and Denman.

Barnbrook Again, who had already won the 1989 Champion Chase, fell when odds-on in a three-runner chase at Kempton the following November after which he was discovered to have a heart irregularity. His trainer, David Elsworth, sent him to Newbury just 10 days later where he broke the track record carrying 12 stone and won the Champion Chase again the next March.

Denman's heart condition was discovered after he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2008. He returned and won a second Hennessy Gold Cup, carrying top weight, and would finish second in three more Cheltenham Gold Cups but his record prior to the problem had been 13 wins from 14 starts under Rules; after it was one from 10.

However, Phil Smith, the British Horseracing Authority's head of handicapping, reckons it would be wrong to conclude that it was simply a case of the horse failing to regain his form.

"When he was second to Kauto Star in the Gold Cup [in 2009] it was probably about 10lbs below his Gold Cup-winning performance," Smith said. "But his second Hennessy win [in 2009], we had as exactly the same performance as his Gold Cup win and he ran well in the next Hennessy [in 2010] to finish third off a mark of 182.

"His performances before his heart problem were at times in races against inferior opposition. Once he got to the state of being a Gold Cup winner he was only going to run off massive weights in handicaps or in top-class races but he was never as consistent as Kauto Star."

Sprinter Sacre does not have an official rating because he has not run for over a year but Smith, in accordance with normal practice when a horse has been sidelined for such a length of time, would be likely to drop him from his previous mark of 188 to around 181, which would still be put him 9lbs ahead of Sire de Grugy, the winner of last year's Champion Chase, who is also returning from injury, and Smith pointed out that if they met at their absolute best, Sprinter Sacre would win by 10 lengths.

Dan Barber, the jumps editor of Timeform, was less sure and added the caveat that may concern many who would otherwise be ready to unleash the full power of the bank balance before that price goes.

"What might stop people is the prospect of him not running or not being back to the same level of form. You'd have doubts about that, given the length of time he's been off the track. If you could take 6-4 non-runner no bet you'd do that."

Smith was not about to get uncomfortable sitting on the fence regarding Cheltenham.

"If he turns up on the day, he'll win," he said.

Two views which go to the heart of the matter.