Califet En Vol boosts The New Lion with Huntingdon success

Califet En Vol paid a compliment to The New Lion when conjuring up a cracking late rally to land the prestigious Sidney Banks Memorial Novices’ Hurdle at Huntingdon.

Nicky Henderson’s 5-4 favourite had previously prevailed by 15 lengths on his jumping debut at Kempton before proving no match for leading Cheltenham Festival fancy The New Lion at Newbury.

The six-year-old looked set for minor honours again after struggling to stay with long-time leader Jax Junior down the home straight and then seeing No Questions Asked sweep past on the inside to challenge at the final flight.

However, Califet En Vol jumped that obstacle well and landed running before powering past to beat No Questions Asked by half a length under Nico de Boinville.

The Listed-class contest has had some notable winners down the years, including former Seven Barrows star Shishkin, and Henderson believes his latest victor has a bright future.

Henderson told Racing TV: “He is a big baby. I was actually staggered where we were standing, how big he actually is.

“He’s deceptive because you walk into his box and he doesn’t look like a big horse, but I just stood into him here on a perfectly level playing field and he’s about two inches taller than I thought he was last night.

“But he stays well. That was two-three and a bit and I’d have preferred two-five and a bit. He’d need further than that.

“The one thing was, that if he was going to be in touch turning in and at the last, you’d be fairly confident he would come home from there, so I thought that was a good performance from a big baby.”

Asked about a spring campaign, he added: “I’d say if he went anywhere, you might look at the three miles at Aintree, but I don’t even know that we need to do that.

“It’s only his third hurdle race and he had one bumper last year, so he’s as big a baby as you’d wish to see, but he’s a lovely, great-looking horse – he’ll be chasing next year and it could be a lot of fun.”

Telepathique (11-4) was terrier-like from the front when making all in the Listed-class Lady Protectress Mares’ Chase over two and a half miles.

Lucy Wadham’s seven-year-old began the season on a mark of just 103 but has done nothing but improve since scoring at Fakenham in late October and made it four wins from five outings over fences.

Despite jumping out to the left under Tom Cannon, she was always at the head of affairs and kicked again after a slick jump at the last to see off odds-on favourite Brides Hill by three and three-quarter lengths.

Wadham confirmed her charge will now get an entry for the Mares’ Chase at Cheltenham and said: “She was given a big chance by the handicapper at the beginning of the season, starting on 103, so that did make our job a bit easier.

“But she’s risen through the ranks in an unbelievable way and today was beyond our wildest dreams really.

“It was the first time she’s run right-handed and she jumped out left down the back and I thought we had no chance, but somehow Tom seemed to get her straightened up and she was so quick over the last two fences and put the race to bed.”

Telepathique is owned by her breeders the Lennox family and Wadham added: “I think she didn’t sell at the sales, so they took her home and raced her themselves and here we are. It’s great for them because they’ve been breeding horses for a long time.”