Alexei won the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham | report and free replay.

Alexei had also been well backed ahead of his previous run at Ascot, a race he won well, but the five-year-old had been a little easy to back in the run-up to this prestigious two mile handicap with trainer Joe Tizzard uncertain whether Alexei would handle the ground.

As it turned out, he sluiced through the testing conditions.

Dan Skelton looked to have a strong grip on the race with Mirabad and Favoir both to the fore with Helnwein the meat in a Skelton sandwich.

Helnwein went on as first Mirabad and then Favoir cracked but all the time Brendan Powell was sitting confidently in his slipstream, biding his time.

Alexei was still in second jumping the last but only marginally so. On landing, Powell got serious in the saddle and Alexei responded in devastating fashion, quickening clear to win by six lengths and seven lengths.

Helnwein was a clear second with Faivoir third and Welsh Charger fourth.

Alexei was completing a double on the day for both his trainer and jockey following the success of Triple Trade.

Tizzard said: “He went up seven pounds for that performance [at Ascot], but he came out of it really well and I felt he was the best I had him. This was a step up again, but to go away like he did after the last was a proper performance.

“I thought coming to the last I was wondering what he was going to find. Brendan said he didn’t have any doubt. He said he wanted company coming down to the last because he just has a look when he gets to the last.

“He won over two miles and three furlongs in a novice hurdle last season, but this his trip. A fast run two miles is ideal for him. The ground was my only concern, but it didn’t hinder him at all. I know what soft on the flat here is like, but in Germany is like that soft, or the soft in France, I don’t know. The horse was in too good a nick not to run in a race like this with the chance he had. If we got beat by the ground then we learnt something.

“I hope [he can step up to be a graded horse]. I’m just enjoying what he is doing at the moment. Ascot is only two weeks ago and he ran a blinder at Chepstow so we have had two cracking weekends with him. I’m minded that he has done that twice in a fortnight, and on slower ground this time. I’ve not got a plan. The plan was these two and that is where we are at.

“It is quite nice [to have a good two miler hurdler]. We’ve not had them. I might be wrong, but I can’t remember us having a runner in the Greatwood and I don't think I had many rides in the Greatwood over the years. This is lovely and it shows we can do it at both ends of the spectrum.

“They are the best owners you could wish for. Their string got a little bit quiet a few years ago and they went again and they are reaping the rewards, not just with me, but with [David] Pipey and [Philip] Hobbsy as well. They deserve every bit of success they get as they are the best possible people you could train for as they are so patient.

“I dropped it in as soon as we got to the winner’s enclosure when we got to Ascot that we might be running in a fortnight and they were like ‘Oh My God’ as they would rather do the original and give the horse a month or something like that, but they are great fun.

“I feel we have a fantastic young team of horses. Eldorado Allen was special, but these horses are the future and they are in lovely form at the moment.”

Better than a handicapper?

Alexei was introduced into the betting for the Champion Hurdle by some firms with Sky Bet quoting the Greatwood winner at 40/1 and Powell does believe Alexei has more in the locker.

“I think he is smart," he said. "I said to Joe I don’t know how good he is as he is certainly improving, and he will have to as I’ve ended up winning on him far too far.

“The race went pretty smoothly, and he jumped as well as he has done, and he travelled nicely. I wanted something to aim at, or a bit of company over the last. I thought I would let him go and win his race and keep him up to his work. It is a valuable handicap, and we don’t know how good he is, but hopefully he could step up to graded level at some stage.”

It was a welcome winner for owner Garth Broom who had left the course on Saturday downhearted and with little expectation for Alexei.

He said: “We had such a disappointment yesterday that I didn't know what was going to happen today. I think he won more impressively than he did at Ascot.

“The only thing was we looked up his Germany form and he had run well on soft and heavy over there, but then what is soft and heavy in a flat race is Germany compared to here. Joe was so adamant to run him. I rang him up last night and he said ‘You’re not going to tell me to pull him are you’, I said ‘No, let’s have a go’. 'Thank God for that' he said.

“Yesterday we thought for Jurancon that everything was right. We checked his heart, we’ve scoped him. He went home and ate up. We are hoping that the blood test might show something as he has never been out of the first two in his life. I was absolutely gutted after that.

“I’m never confident, but when he was five lengths clear I thought he would win unless a thunderbolt came down from the sky.

“We were offered Kripticjim and Alexei. Anne said she liked Kripticjim and I said I like this one and I said we will buy them both so it was a good bit of work. I thought we would have something different. We buy those that go well in the mud, but then come Cheltenham and Aintree we have nothing.

“I don’t think you can ever top a Gold Cup, but that was nearly as good. I’d like to win another Gold Cup so I can appreciate it a bit more.

“I think he could be better than a handicap hurdler.”

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