Altior wins as predicted '“ but not in style connections were hoping

Yet this was not the virtuoso performance that trainer Nicky Henderson, and jockey Nico de Boinville, predicted from a horse billed as the next Sprinter Sacre.

The 1-4 odds-on favourite was trailing the luckless Charbel at the second last when the pacesetter knuckled on landing and parted company with David Bass who threw his whip to the ground in frustration. He felt the outcome was too close to call.

And then Altior had to dig deep to hold off the challenge of Cloudy Dream who was a gallant runner-up for Malton trainer Malcolm Jefferson and jockey Brian Hughes with Brian Ellison’s Forest Bihan never closer than fifth after a number of jumping errors under Aidan Coleman.

Though National Hunt devotees are salivating at a potential clash next season between Altior and Ireland’s superstar Douvan, an even hotter favourite for today’s Queen Mother Champion Chase, Cloudy Dream’s connections were far from discouraged by the less than emphatic margin of their six-length defeat.

“He is a better horse in the spring with better ground. He won his first two novice chases and then he went a little bit lighter on us. Once January came, he has just turned and really thrived,” said a delighted Jefferson.

“Altior’s a real good two-miler, I think my lad will get two and a half miles quite easily, maybe even three miles one day. I didn’t think we would win but I thought he would run a big race and he has done that.”

As for future plans, Jefferson suggested the Grade One Merseyrail Manifesto Novices’ Chase over two miles and four furlongs at Aintree’s Grand National Festival will be next on the gelding’s agenda.

The aforementioned Hughes concurred, saying in his debrief: “The winner is obviously a very good horse but our lad has stepped up massively and we thought he would on the better ground.

“Malcolm had him in good form and thought he was in the form of his life coming into this race. The winner’s a very good horse and I know Charbel fell at the second last but I would have got by him anyway and my lad galloped to the line so I couldn’t ask for any more.

“He won his first two starts over fences and then he ran twice on deep ground and I knew he wasn’t 100 per cent in himself the last time he ran at Doncaster so today I’ve got no complaints – he’s run well.”

Cyrus Darius was last of the 10 finishers for Jefferson and Hughes in the Champion Hurdle while Double W’s was only ninth in the concluding novice handicap chase for the Yorkshire combination.

Ride of the day went to Tom Scudamore who nursed top weight Un Temps Pour Tout into contention in the three-mile Ultimate Handicap Chase before digging deep to outbattle Singlefarmpayment on the run-in.

Trained by David Pipe, the horse was winning the three mile handicap chase for the second successive year and carried five pounds more than last year. The novice Vintage Clouds ran with credit for High Eldwick’s Sue Smith before falling two out.

A tenth Festival success for Scudamore, he was quick to pay tribute to Pipe and the trainer’s record-breaking father Martin for their faith in a horse who has, at times, struggled to justify his £450,000 purchase fee.

“The Pipes are geniuses. Nothing more needs to be said. The team do all the hard work. David does the training and leaves the riding up to me,” he said.

“Sometimes you come here and plans get changed, but David said all the way through keep it simple. He’s a very good horse, but he can run a funny race – he made no show in the Hennessy, ran an odd race in the Long Walk, but today he was up and travelling and attacking his fences. I’d like to ask him what he’s thinking.

“I knew halfway up the run in that I was going to get there. I rode the exact same race as I did last year and everything has worked out. Every Festival winner gets better.”