Blaze shows the Way home at Cheltenham

Blaze The Way stayed on powerfully to win the valuable Turners Handicap Chase at Cheltenham for Margaret and Danny Mullins.

With £100,000 on offer, a competitive field assembled including the Grade One winner L’Homme Presse who was giving lumps of weight away all round and looked like dropping out tamely at one stage, before being nursed back into contention by Charlie Deutsch to claim a fine second on his first run for over 300 days.

King Turgeon set a good early clip with Herakles Westwood harrying him and Blaze The Way (15-2) never too far away and it was the last-named runner who stormed up the hill to win by five lengths.

The winning trainer told ITV: “He always turns up every day and runs a good race every day and was brilliant today.

“The step up in trip was needed and his last few runs have been lovely as well.

“We’ll get through today and see how we are after this. I’ll talk to the owners and see what they say and then decide.

“But I’m delighted with him today and it’s great to get today over. Today was the plan and it worked out.”

Danny Mullins added: “It’s a pleasure to come out here and ride horses like this and little boys who keep their mummy happy at Christmas do all right in life.

“To be fair, she owed me one as she beat me at the Cheltenham Festival in the Albert Bartlett a few years ago (Martello Tower beat Milsean) when I was looking for my first Cheltenham winner, but it’s great and we have good craic about that at home.

“For my mother to come here with a very small stable, it’s not easy to do and plot out a £100,000 handicap.

“We were sitting down in the summer looking at this. Brian and Tom Groarke are part-owners – they aren’t here today – and Molly and Paul Willis bought Mags’ share a few weeks ago when I told them about this plan and it’s came out great for them, and there was a good team from America here today as well.

“It’s a plan that has come together well and it’s easy to make plans but it’s nice to walk into the winner’s enclosure afterwards.”

L’Homme Presse’s part-owner Andy Edwards said: “It’s not always great to watch when your boy is out there and you think ‘what’s wrong now’, but he’s fought on really well. I’ll find out shortly if Charlie thought something wasn’t quite right but he’s run on so bravely up the hill and has stayed on once again.

“I’m just so grateful to have him back actually, that was my overriding emotion once he was over the last fence and ran on.

“I never ever, ever give up on a horse and we’d have gone home and helped him and he’s all about class, but something was obviously not quite right halfway round. It is his first run since he pulled-up at Ascot and I need to talk to Charlie.

“There is no plan, it was just today and he’s run really well. He was carrying 12st and the ground was possibly quicker than ideal and Charlie may say they put on a little bit of pace there and he got dropped a bit. But when it came to staying up the hill, he was back to himself, I’m happy.”