Cheltenham: Lucky Place is Relkeel Hurdle hero for Nicky Henderson and Nico de Boinville | Racing News happymamay

Lucky Place announced himself as a Stayers’ Hurdle contender with a fighting victory over the impressive Gowel Road in the Dornan Engineering Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Nicky Henderson’s progressive performance made a successful return in the Ascot Hurdle and he was once again up against Jeremy Scott’s Cheltenham Festival winner Golden Ace, who was sent off as the 5/2 favorite for the New Year’s Day feature.

Ridden by Nico de Boinville, Lucky Place was one of the runners to keep an eye on Gowel Road heading forward as Sam Twiston-Davies attempted to bring stamina to the front aboard his father Nigel’s strong and consistent performance.

Meanwhile, Golden Ace, Gary and Josh Moore’s Salver traveled stylishly at the back as they stealthily moved into contention heading down the slope for the final time.

With Salver taking a steep fall at the end and Golden Ace’s stamina beginning to waver, it was left to Lucky Place to stop a collected Gowel Road who refused to lie down and make the young Seven Barrows pretender answer every call.

He returned a judged winner by three-quarters of a length at odds of 3/1, with Henderson proposing the Cleeve Hurdle to be next as he looks for further evidence to justify a tilt to the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March, for which Coral went 16/1 from 20/1 .

“He’s about as lovely a young horse as you could hope for,” Henderson said. “He was supposed to start chasing and jumping very well, but I couldn’t find opportunities to chase and I don’t mind saying that.” Because he should have been chased.

“Fortunately, we have some very good junior chasers doing that, and now he’s back in the Ascot Hurdle and into this, and I think he’s in the team for the Stayers’ Hurdle. He’s stayed.

“You could go to the Cliff, but I don’t know, a three-mile race is always going to be a tough battle and does he need one on the way to the Stairs or not? We had a quick chat with Nico after that. We decided he should have a crack with the stayers, but does We need to test this before March because we are quite confident that it will survive.

“He rode to take the sting out in the race today and we had to ride him like a rider today, we needed to pace him and get on with it and take the sting out of the fast horses which he did and then he put his head down and fought well.

“It’s an open division and I think he’s got his ticket to the Stairs team. We don’t have anything else to race.

“I don’t think we have to prove his survival ourselves, we know he will stay and he is on a progressive curve.

“We think he’s a three miler, he’s progressive and I’d say it’s better that he keeps growing rather than run another race on him. The only point in running at Cliffe is to prove his viability and why not ask for it in March and not the end of January.”