Kayley Woollacott and Richard Johnson team up for deserved and emotional success with star of the show Lalor

THEY say fortune favours the brave.

After the year Kayley Woollacott has had to endure she deserves all the luck going. At Cheltenham, Lalor - the star of her 10-horse stable – barely needed any.

He put in the some fine leaps for Richard Johnson on his way to an impressive chase debut victory at Cheltenham.

Woollacott’s husband Richard always had high hopes for Lalor. Tragically he took his own life in January following a battle with depression before he got see the Grade 1 novice hurdle success at Aintree in the spring.

If today is anything to go by, Lalor will be even better over fences.

Woollacott, who took over the training licence from her husband, said: “It’s so amazing - we’ve worked so hard for this.

“We were on ‘plan F’ – we’ve tried so hard to get him out before now. We’ve really learnt that sometimes it pays to be brave and it's come off. That’s the perfect start.

“He took to fences like a duck to water – he’s always been a mega jumper.

“Dickie said he was a little bit brave over the first and a bit novicey at a couple of fences but he took to it really quickly. His jumping was ace.

“I wasn’t watching by the second-last - I saw he had got to the front and that was it.”

Plenty of punters were clearly watching. Ladbrokes initially went 10-1 for the Arkle Trophy at next March’s Festival but were knocked over in the rush to back the imposing six-year-old. He was slashed to 6-1 second favourite behind Kalashnikov.

Woollacott, based in Devon, added: “It’s a massive day. At Aintree it was very overwhelming and got sucked in by everything else.

“We had a proper break over the summer and this is in our own right. As a team we’ve done him ourselves and that’s really important.

“Lalor was Richard’s favourite horse and he always said ‘this is the best thing we’ll get our hands on’.

It’s amazing that David and Bunty Staddon still have him with me and allow me to do it.”

Sceau Royal was cut to 16-1 from 25s for the Champion Chase after returning from injury to land the Shloer Chase.