A review of the rest of the action from Friday's meeting at Cheltenham

Vic looks smart prospect

Honest Vic relished stepping up in trip when routing his rivals in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle.

Henry Daly's charge, tipped up by Dave Massey in Friday's Punting Pointers, was always travelling strongly under Richard Patrick and could be called the winner some way out.

Lock's Corner (20/1) did try to shake him up but was never going to do so, boxing on for second albeit four lengths adrift.

Value Bet selection Kansas City Chief (18/1) batted on tenaciously for third ahead of Sirrobbie (16/1).

Daly said of the 12/1 winner: “I think my last winner here was at the hunter chase evening. He has done that all right. The bonus from my point of view is that he is owned by my mother, uncle and first cousin and that makes life a little bit sweeter really.

“He ran seriously well in the Coral Cup. You can’t get away from the fact that form at the Festival is strong and if he got the trip, which we thought he would, we were hoping he was going to win, but I have to say I didn’t think he would win like that.

“We were going to over fences, but we might have to have a think. He might be better in conditions races over hurdles over a trip.”

The winner is 25/1 with the Betfair and Paddy Power for the Pertemps Final back here in March.

Winning owner Carol Daly, mother of the winnning trainer, said: "He couldn't have win by much more of a distance - I'm thrilled for Henry. It hadn't gone very well early in the year with him but hopefully things have turned now. One would hope to come back for the Festival, fingers crossed yes."

Patrick added: "He was fantastic today. The step up to three miles has definitely helped him. He switched off early and was economic over his hurdles and saved energy. He took off down the hill and Henry and the team had him in fantastic order."

Stone shines for Nicholls

Southfield Stone produced a tremendous round of jumping to give Paul Nicholls a fourth victory in the Best Odds At Matchbook Novices' Chase.

Harry Cobden set out to make all on the 2/1 winner who, despite his fluent fencing, was headed by Coole Cody (5/1) turning in.

However he jumped his way back to the front two out and battled on well up the hill to score by a length-and-a-half.

7/4 favourite Pileon made a series of mistakes and trailed home last of four.

Nicholls said: “He has been one of those lucky horses that couldn’t run in the spring because of Covid-19 and he is able to be a novice until December 1. That bit of experience just helps them. He ran some nice races last year. Physically he is a better horse this year and that was probably his best performance.

“He is a nice horse and will win plenty of races. We have just got to place him in the right races. Going left-handed suits him better and that is the best he has jumped today.

“He would have won the Pendil at Kempton last season if he hadn’t walked through the ditch at the far side. He wasn’t quite jumping and his wind was troubling him a fraction, but we’ve sorted that out.”

Assessing future targets, the Ditcheat handler earmarked a return to Cheltenham for the Paddy Power Gold Cup, for which he was introduced at 16-1 by Sky Bet.

He added: “I will enter him in the Paddy Power Gold Cup as he is a second-season novice and that could be an option. The other option is to come back for the novice chase at the meeting over the same trip.”

More Cheltenham success for Botox

Botox Has (11/2) recorded a second win at Cheltenham by taking the Masterson Holdings Hurdle for Gary and Josh Moore.

The winner tracked the front-running Allmankind (11/8 favourite) for much of the contest and turning in had taken the measure of the leader.

The danger was in behind as The Pink'n (14/1) threatened to launch a challenge but he was untidy at the last and never able to land a blow, going down by four lenghts.

Betfair and Paddy Power introduced the winner at 50/1 for the Unibet Champion Hurdle.

The winning rider said: "I was delighted with him. He travelled better early on than I was expecting, last year he was a little slow in his races and ground it out well so I was mindful to get him down the hill knowing he'd keep galloping up the straight.

"When I asked him to pick up he did and won nicely. I wanted to keep an eye on Allmankind today and my horse won well."