Grand National Festival 2018 – Terrefort won the Betway Mildmay Novices’ Chase for Daryl Jacob and Nicky Henderson at Aintree racecourse
Nicky Henderson and Daryl Jacob, the men who dominated the opening day of the Grand National Festival at Aintree, continued the fine form of their partnership on Ladies Day as Terrefort won the Betway Mildmay Novices' Chase.
TERREFORT continued the winning momentum for Nicky Henderson and Daryl Jacob at Aintree as he stayed on stoutly to win the Betway Mildmay Novices' Chase.
The pair combined to win two Grade 1s with We Have A Dream and L'Ami Serge on the opening day of the Grand National Festival.
Ladies Day appears to be reading from the same script as 3-1 favourite Terrefort, runner-up in the JLT Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, defied concerns he might not stay in testing conditions to surge past the ultra-game mare Ms Parfois (9-2), herself a runner-up at the Cheltenham Festival.
Anthony Honeyball's mare is a stout stayer and came home ahead of Colin Tizzard's Elegant Escape (4-1), who finished best of the rest in third.
Henderson said: "He's very good, isn't he? He's only five.
"He's going to have a holiday. Effectively I put him away after Cheltenham, but the weather kept up like this and I thought 'why are we putting him to bed when he wants this ground?'.
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"He loves this ground. He's the only horse I could promise you would go in that. I'm not saying he'd win, but I knew he would go in it. But literally after Cheltenham we were putting him away.
"He's got the trip (three miles and one furlong) well. Today's objective was to find out. It sets us up for next year and what we are thinking about now we know he stays.
"He'd run many times before Christmas in France, so he's had an awful lot of campaigning for a baby."
Anthony Bromley, racing manager to winning owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, said: "After Cheltenham we were going to put him away for the season, as he'd been on the go all summer in France.
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"I just had a feeling and asked Nicky if he could him ready for Aintree and this horse just takes everything in his stride.
"We were pleased the rain came, but it was three-mile-one. Coming to the last with a four-miler mare, I didn't know, but he dug deep.
"Daryl says he might be his Grand National horse. He looks that type, but he'll have to wait two years as he's only five."