The highly-regarded Caldwell Potter made a successful start for Paul Nicholls on debut over fences at Carlisle on Sunday.
Nicholls enjoyed a fine couple of days at Newbury's Coral Gold Cup meeting, including victory in the big handicap courtesy of Kandoo Kid as well as some highly promising types for Caldwell Potter's new connections which include Sir Alex Ferguson and John Hales.
The new owners went to 740,000 euros to acquire the grey at the Caldwell Construction dispersal sale at Tattersalls Ireland in February and would have been buoyed by his very first leap in Sunday's two-mile Myles Turns 30 Novices' Chase as he was spring-heeled and immediately looked the part under stable jockey Harry Cobden.
Caldwell Potter (2/11 favourite) travelled strongly at the head of affairs and held a lead of a couple of lengths when standing off the third-last and clearing it in good style.
He safely negotiated the final two obstacles before being shaken up to score in taking fashion, five lengths ahead of runner-up Hombre De Guerra (28/1).
Paddy Power make the winner 25/1 (from 50s) for the Arkle at Cheltenham and 20/1 (from 25s) for the three-mile Brown Advisory Novices' Chase.
Cobden said on Racing TV: "It's nice to get a run into him, he jumped well and was very professional. He jumped a little bit to his left but I'm glad we came here rather than in at the deep end at Newbury, it was a good start. He's had a nice first run.
"You don't mind it when one has a look but he went down to the first like he'd jumped a million fences!
"It's proper soft ground out there and he probably couldn't have it soft enough this horse."
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“That was a good start, it was just what we wanted,” said Nicholls.
“He jumped nicely, he won well, that’s the first rung of the ladder and I’m obviously really pleased with him.
“He’s got to learn, that was only his fourth run over jumps as he ran three times over hurdles.
“He’s relatively inexperienced so we’ve just got to build that experience now, get him some practice and quietly creep on.
“I haven’t made a plan. Everyone will want to know where he goes next but I haven’t made that decision, we’ve got some valuable experience there. That was just the job, just the start we wanted."
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