Victoria Pendleton boosts her chances of Cheltenham ride with win at Wincanton on Pacha Du Polder

Pendleton needed to show she can hold her own on the racecourse after being unseated from the same horse at Fakenham last month, but she answered any doubters in style with an all-the-way success in the Betfair Switching Saddles Hunters’ Chase.

However, the decision on whether she will line up in the St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase on the final day of the Festival is out of her hands now, with the horse’s trainer Paul Nicholls, jumping guru Yogi Breisner and Lawney and Alan Hill, from whose yard she has been riding out, due to discuss the issue over the weekend before delivering their final verdict on Monday.

The London 2012 gold medallist set out to make a positive impact, taking a prominent role from the off and after surviving a couple of sticky leaps, Pendleton returned to a warm reception from the Wincanton crowd, with the 5-4 favourite running out a 29-length victor.

Pendleton said: “I really wanted to get round to do my horse justice and for my team of Paul Nicholls, Alan and Lawney Hill and Yogi Breisner.

“I wanted to do them justice as they have put so much work and effort into supporting me. I feel very honoured and lucky to be allowed to ride such a wonderful animal.

“I was very frustrated (after Fakenham) but also I know that this sport is full of thrills and spills – that can happen, it’s racing. When I started this challenge, people said, ‘You know you’re going to fall off, don’t you?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I know’, but it’s a very small price to pay for the joy you get in riding a thoroughbred racehorse.

“I’ve had the most wonderful year learning how to ride and school horses. Just the joy of galloping racehorses has hit me hard and gone right in. With a racehorse, the partnership is something that is so special. If someone would have told me this last year I wouldn’t have believed them. It’s been life changing.”

“I don’t know if I will make Cheltenham. It is not for me to decide, it is up to my team of experts to sit down and decide and an announcement will be made on Monday.”

Pendleton appears to have a positive vote from Nicholls, as he was impressed with her effort and believes that performance qualifies her to take her place at Cheltenham.

“That was good, I liked the way she did the job. It really was a nice ride and she will have learnt a lot from that,” said the Ditcheat handler.

“She did a good job schooling at home on Monday

“This is a tricky course and she did well in that wind. She looked a completely different rider.

“We will all get together to make a decision. There is nothing to say she shouldn’t line up and on today’s performance she is more than qualified in my book to ride.”

The Last Samuri will complete his preparations for the Grand National in Saturday’s BetBright Grimthorpe Chase Handicap Chase at Doncaster.

Kim Bailey, who saddled Mr Frisk to win the Aintree spectacular in 1990, will send his charge to Town Moor rather than take up his engagement in the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

The eight-year-old was last seen when winning at Kempton back in December.

A handful of fellow National possibles are also entered in the Grimthorpe, with Neil Mulholland’s The Druids Nephew, Aachen from Venetia Williams’s yard and Nicky Henderson’s Bear’s Affair in the reckoning for both events along with Ikorodu Road and the Paul Nicholls-trained pair of Just A Par and Wonderful Charm.

All feature among a bumper 113 to stand their ground at the latest scratchings stage for Aintree.