Gowel Road not winning out of turn in Cleeve Hurdle

Perennial bridesmaid Gowel Road enjoyed a deserved day in the sun after claiming top honours in the Betfair Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham.

The nine-year-old has finished second four times at Prestbury Park this season, most recently pushing Lucky Place close in the Relkeel Hurdle on New Year’s Day.

Stepping back up in trip for this three-mile Grade Two, Gowel Road was a 5-2 joint-favourite for Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies and raced close to pace from start to finish.

After taking over the lead from Botox Has on the approach to the last, Gowel Road stayed on strongly up the hill to score by two and a quarter lengths from Monmiral, with Botox Has third.

The two disappointments of the race were dual Long Walk Hurdle hero Crambo and Grade One winner Strong Leader.

A bad mistake five from home put Crambo on the back foot and he could never recover, while Strong Leader – looking to bounce back from a below-par run when favourite for the Long Walk at Ascot last month – made some late gains to finish fourth but never threatened to land a telling blow.

Gowel Road is 16-1 from 25-1 for the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and Nigel Twiston-Davies is keen to shoot for Grade One gold.

“He deserved that and he’s finished second in four races before today,” said the Naunton handler.

“The handicapper has been hard on him all season, but now he’s won a race which is good. It’s a lovely race to win and this is smashing.

“He’ll definitely have to go to the Stayers’, any idea of going for the Pertemps Final is gone now.

“You had to come here confident and on ratings he wasn’t far out. Crambo never runs well here, he was top-rated and I thought we had a very good chance.”

Paul Nicholls was pleased with the performance of runner-up Monmiral, saying: “I think he’ll come back here for either the Pertemps or the Stayers’, we’ll have him in both and see what happens.

“He’s in no man’s land a bit, he’ll have to carry 12st in a handicap or run in a Grade One. He gave 4lb to the winner there.

“I could be tempted to take him to the French Champion Hurdle at Auteuil. Aintree would be too tight for him so he could come here for a race and then to France – he’d like it round there.

“I think the owners would like to roll the dice and go for a Stayers’, but if you’re 20-1 for the Stayers’ and favourite for a Pertemps you have got to run in the race where you can win and top-weights can win handicaps.”