Knappers Hill adds to four-star haul for Nicholls at Wincanton

Champion trainer has sights on Fighting Fifth for Elite Hurdle winner.

Knappers Hill made every yard of the running to beat fellow joint-favourite and race regular Sceau Royal in the Unibet Elite Hurdle at Wincanton – to form part of a Paul Nicholls four-timer.

Alan King’s 10-year-old Sceau Royal was looking for a fourth win in the Grade Two event, a race he first won as a four-year-old way back in 2016.

He had been odds-on favourite to do so as well, but the good ground lover saw his chances fade gradually throughout the day as the rain continued to come down in the West Country.

Harry Cobden set out to make it a real test on Knappers Hill (11-8 joint-favourite), and the six-year-old bounded clear of Sceau Royal after the last to win by two and a half lengths.

Betfair cut the winner to 10-1 from 20s for the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham later this month.

Nicholls said: “It was fairly obvious the only way we were going to win was by going a gallop. He jumped well, which was brilliant. He stays well.

“I texted Harry last night and said you will have to ride him like you did Greaneteen – be brave and go a good gallop. It was perfect.

“He is a good horse and he is improving. He obviously stays and we took the race to them. I was just worried a fraction about his jumping, but he is brilliant now. He is obviously a smart horse.”

As for the future he said: “I did put him in that (Fighting Fifth) then you would have to look at the Christmas Hurdle. He is just a wonderful horse.

“That was the next step up the ladder for him. He keeps improving so he could be anything.

“My ultimate aim in my mind is that I think he will be a great horse for the Aintree Hurdle in the spring on a flat track over two and a half miles as that would suit him well.”

The champion trainer also won the Badger Beer Chase with Frodon, Hugos New Horse justified 2-7 favouritism in the West Country Weekend EBF Stallions ‘National Hunt’ Novices’ Hurdle while Don Alvaro (7-2 joint-favourite) won the Supporting Wincanton Town Youth Football Club Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Chase.

Hang In There, one of the stars of the summer jumping season, gained a valuable Grade Two prize when taking advantage of the unfortunate early exit of McFabulous.

Nicholls’ charge was sent off the 4-6 favourite by virtue of his hurdling form being head and shoulders above anything else on offer, but Harry Cobden pulled him up before halfway.

With second-favourite Sebastopol also running way below his best, another to be pulled up, it left Fergal O’Brien’s Mortlach and Emma Lavelle’s Hang In There (5-1) to fight it out.

A winner of four on good ground in the summer, he was caught out by rain-softened ground at Cheltenham last time out but he lived up to his name to win by three and a half lengths.

Lavelle said: “He has been able to probably jump fences better than a hurdle as over a hurdle he could just clatter through one where as fences he has a bit more respect.

“He needs genuine good ground and I know people at Cheltenham who had a soft ground said it was too quick, but if you have a little horse like that he was going into far.

“I know he won a hurdle around Cheltenham but I’d say he is a flat track horse. He will go have a holiday now as he has had a busy old summer.”

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