Other bookmakers are more wary of the Nick Williams' trained eight-year-old, with prices as short as 10/1 quoted for the two-mile chase championship next March.
Gauvain defied a whopping 576-day absence from the racecourse to cause a 16/1 upset today after being delivered perfectly by Daryl Jacob, jumping the last upsides and powering clear of Forpadydeplasterer, who was finishing second for the seventh straight race.
Williams, for whom this was Gauvain's first outing, was understandably delighted - albeit a little shocked - with the victory. He said: "I'm thrilled, but like everyone else very surprised he won.
"He'll have one or two runs before the Champion Chase, but won't have an arduous time before the Festival. We took the blinkers off as an experiment today, and he doesn't seem to need them."
Gauvain was formerly trained by Charlie Mann, whose stable jockey Noel Fehily had ridden Gauvain to all five of his hurdle and chase victories in Britain previously. He also accompanied Gavain to 6th place behind Forpadydeplasterer in the 2009 Arkle Chase and in his previous run back in April 2009 when winning a Novices' Chase at Cheltenham's April meeting.
On the evidence of his last two Cheltenham runs, the 25/1 currently offered by William Hill for the Champion Chase is unlikely to last long.
Gauvain (right) has been cut to 10/1 by some bookies for the 2011 Champion Chase
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