JPR One took the Lightning Novices’ Chase at Lingfield’s Winter Million Festival and is now set for an Arkle Chase bid at the Cheltenham Festival.
There was major drama at the first fence when Matata jumped to his left, taking down Djelo and badly hampering Master Chewy as JPR One emerged unscathed.
Matata continued in the lead, although still jumping slightly to the left, with JPR One a stride behind him and Pembroke not far off the eventual winner.
Master Chewy was knocked off his stride at the first, making it tough for him to get back into the race and the positions in the field were unchanged for much of the contest with JPR One travelling strongly behind the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Matata.
At the penultimate fence JPR One and Matata were still battling it out, but a great jump from JPR One at the last put the seven-year-old ahead and Joe Tizzard’s charge began to power home under Brendan Powell.
However the son of Court Cave idled, and the gap narrowed to the keeping-on Matata, with Daryl Jacob’s mount only half a length behind at the line.
After the race, Tizzard told Sky Sports Racing of JPR One: “He was real good today. I’m not making excuses for Sandown but I think he just got stuck in the ground.
“It was an easy watch, he jumped for fun and that’s the horse we think we’ve got against arguably the best novice chasers in England.
“We’ll take him to the Arkle after that, he deserves to be there.”
First Flow dominates
First Flow, ridden by David Bass and trained by Kim Bailey, led all the way to claim his 12th career victory in the Download The Racing App Now Godstone Handicap Chase.
The 12-year-old, who started at 15/2, was pressured by Saint Segal as they turned for home but, after jumping well throughout the two-mile contest, he ran on strongly in the closing stages to see off David Noonan’s mount by one-and-three-quarter lengths.
Nurse Susan scores on step up in trip
Dan Skelton’s Nurse Susan (6/4f) fought off Ramo to be victorious by a neck in the Weatherbys Hamilton Handicap Hurdle as she made a significant step up in trip to 2m 7f.
Nurse Susan just did enough to repel Ramo
The mare rallied in the closing stages under Harry Skelton as Ramo began to challenge for trainer Venetia Williams, and was always doing just enough to claim the valuable prize.