Gold Present

Gold Present put up an impressive performance to land the two-mile-three-furlong handicap chase at Doncaster on Saturday.

Prominent from early, Andrew Tinkler allowed him stride on past Viens Chercher from the fifth fence and, from there, he jumped well, with the exception of a mistake at the fourth fence, and he just got stronger as the race developed. I'dliketheoption travelled well into the race behind and appeared as a danger on the run to the second last fence, but Gold Present was much too strong. He powered on from the second last and stayed on strongly up the run-in to post an impressive victory in a good time, marginally faster than Racing Post par.

This was much more like it from Nicky Henderson's horse. An exciting novice hurdler in the spring of 2015, he was desperately disappointing last season, pulling up on his debut and then failing to show in two runs in handicap hurdles last spring after a break. He obviously benefitted from his summer break this time, however, and he obviously retains lots of ability, which he was able to show on Saturday.

The handicapper raised him 7lb for Saturday's win to a mark of 137, but that looks more than fair. It was his seasonal debut and his first chase, so there is every chance that he can improve significantly on it. Also, he is only six and has run just eight times under all codes to date, so he has bags of scope for progression. He goes well on this goodish ground, but he won his maiden hurdle on soft. He is built to jump fences, he could be significantly better over fences now than he was over hurdles, and he will be of interest wherever he goes next.

Doncaster, 26^th November 2016

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