SILVINIACO Conti, well below par in the King George at Kempton over Christmas, returned to form with a vengeance at Ascot last Saturday.

Paul Nicholls’ 10-year-old, having tracked Royal Regatta in the Grade 1 Betfair Ascot Chase, took it up before the penultimate fence and galloped away to beat Dynaste by 20 lengths. Royal Regatta held on for third in a race where the finishers were well spread out.

Although Silviniaco Conti (2/1 favourite) did not need to be at his best to win this, he dropped back to two miles, five furlongs in style and jumped well. Nicholls is very astute when it comes to re-assessing a horse’s ability with the passing of the years and he is now thinking of the Crabbie’s Grand National, having accepted that the seven-time Grade 1 winner will never enjoy himself at Cheltenham.

“It’s now highly likely that he’ll go for the National,” the trainer said. “He is arguably well in now (with 11st 8lb) and Noel Fehily is keen on it.” The seven-time Grade 1 winner was raised 5lb to a mark of 169 on Tuesday, but with the compressing his previous mark to 163 in the National weights last week, Silviniaco Conti will race off a 6lb lower mark than his new rating.

On the way to the top of his profession, Nicholls has seen any number of horses at Ditcheat come good again after a wind operation but in Silviniaco Conti’s case it was a question of also having his soft palate cauterised. He wore blinkers for the first time and left his Kempton running well behind.

Dynaste was equipped with both first-time blinkers and a tongue-tie. He kept on steadily in the closing stages but, despite a Ryanair Chase victory, is never quite going to fulfil all his early promise, though David Pipe would no doubt argue that he has been quite an earner at the highest level over the years.

Nicky Henderson’s in-and-out campaign took a dip as Triolo d’Alene failed to get into the argument at all and the mare Ma Filleule was pulled up before the last. Flemenstar, tipped up on many places, was a big disappointment for Andrew Lynch, losing touch up the far side and being pulled up.

“He’s won the Bowl twice at Aintree so we’re not going to gain anything by winning it again,” Nicholls continued. “These class horses, like Neptune Collonges was, can come to the fore in the National. He won’t run again before then.”

Bookmakers halved Silviniaco Conti from 40/1 to 20s immediately after the race, while Paddy Power cut Nicholls to 4/7 to land a 10th trainers’ title.