CORAL FINALE JUVENILE

HURDLE (GRADE 1)

THERE will be many more Nicky Henderson v Paul Nicholls battles before the season is out. The latter had the better of things in the Grade 1 Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle as Quel Destin, a 7/4 chance, battled back to deny Henderson’s Adjali (4/6) by a neck. The pair outclassed their three rivals.

Sam Twiston-Davies may be freelancing but he still rides for Nicholls on occasion and soon had Quel Destin bowling along at a fair pace as Daryl Jacob tracked him, going easily, on the favourite.

CLASSY HURDLERS

These are classy three-year-olds and it became a question of when Jacob would make his move. He drew alongside between the last two flights and almost certainly led for a short time but Twiston-Davies galvanised Quel Destin and, halfway up the run in, it became obvious that the race was far from over.

Running on with great determination, the Nicholls runner forced his way back in front and was on top at the line in a splendid contest. There was a gap of 22 lengths back to French raider Arverne.

Whether Adjali, who twice beat Quel Destin when they were trained in France, would have prevailed by waiting a bit longer is impossible to say. He will no doubt have his chance in the Triumph Hurdle in March, though the ground may be very different of course.

The result bore witness to the winner’s toughness because he was coming on only 10 days after a hard-fought victory at Doncaster.

“I’m absolutely made up,” said Nicholls’ assistant trainer Harry Derham. “He’d eaten up well and looked fantastic so we decided to take our chance. I imagine we’ll go quiet with him now and have just one run before the Triumph.”

MORE GLORY

The winning stable unveiled a very promising bumper horse in Ask For Glory, who ran away with the closing event at 4/6. A Fame and Glory gelding, he may have beaten little but fairly ambled away from them and showed how much the jumps game has changed.

He cost £280,000 after winning a Bartlemy point for Donal Coffey and his next outing will be viewed with considerable interest.