Bailly’s Comet was preferred in the betting but proved no match for the Nicky Henderson-trained winner from the second last hurdle, the six-year-old staying on powerfully to beat his rival by two-and-three-quarter lengths.

“If you’d looked at him beforehand you’d have expected him to need it,” the winning trainer told Sky Sports Racing.

“He had his first run over hurdles right at the end of last season and we went to Hexham. I was actually a bit disappointed that day but then I think the winner came out and won two more straight off the back of it.

“Our horse then had a break and was in a bit later than some of them and has done well. He’s by an old friend of ours in Scorpion, who would take you back to Might Bite and horses like that.

"He can only improve for today and is a kind horse. I think he’ll stay, most of the family do, and he is very honest. He’d have the size to jump a fence in time, but he’s just been backward, which just goes back to the pedigree more than anything else.”

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