Cheltenham Sunday

HENRY de Bromhead’s Put The Kettle On won the November Novices’ Chase on this card last year, before taking the Arkle in impressive style, and she maintained her perfect record at the track by overhauling the front-running Duc Des Genievres (Paul Nicholls/Harry Cobden) in the Grade 2 Shloer Chase.

The 7/4 second favourite found plenty for pressure in what turned into something of slog, beating the 2019 Arkle winner by one and a quarter lengths with another 56 lengths back to the only other finisher, after favourite Defi Du Seuil was pulled up before the last.

Winning rider Aidan Coleman feels his mount could be a Champion Chase contender, although admitted that he was not happy from an early stage in this contest, crediting the mare with great courage for grinding out a win on ground she seemed to hate.

Paul Nicholls was delighted with the effort of the runner-up on his stable debut, while both Philip Hobbs and Richard Johnson felt that Defi Du Seuil, who propped quite badly on landing at the first fence but jumped well thereafter, just got very tired, and his jockey felt it prudent to miss the last fence in the circumstances. This is obviously a worrying run given his flop in the Champion Chase, but he has needed a run in the past, and the sponsor’s quote of 10/1 for the Betfair Tingle Creek looks a bit of an overreaction.

Ramses great

A disappointment in the race last year before picking up a pair of Grade 2 novice hurdles, Ramses De Teillee (David Pipe/Tom Scudamore) ran up to his best to get the better of a thrilling battle with the enterprisingly ridden Yala Enki (Paul Nicholls/Bryony Frost), gaining a hard-fought win by a short head in the Planteur At Chapel Stud Handicap Chase

The winner was returned at 11/2, and as the pair battled for supremacy over the last three fences, they pulled 35 lengths clear of Big River in third.

Disappointment of the race was Discorama, who seemed to travel with zest, and looked a big threat before the field reached the top of the hill on the final circuit, but he gradually lost his place, and was beaten nearly 40 lengths into last of the five finishers.

He wasn’t given a hard time when beaten, however, and isn’t one to write off, with the Welsh National still a realistic target given his previous consistent profile.

The Chepstow marathon is presumably the aim once more for Ramses De Teillee, who was runner-up in the 2018 race as a six-year-old. Yala Enki, on the other hand, is reported to be heading to Aintree for the Becher Chase, with a view to testing his Grand National credentials.