Regent’s Stroll makes no mistake at Wincanton

Regent’s Stroll opened his account over fences at the second attempt with a clear-cut victory over Jeriko Du Reponet in the PricedUp The Jumps ‘Chasing Excellence’ Beginners’ Chase at Wincanton.

Dual bumper winner Regent’s Stroll won twice from five starts over hurdles last season for Paul Nicholls and was only narrowly beaten by Honesty Policy in a Grade One at Aintree in the spring, while Nicky Henderson’s Jeriko Du Reponet has four hurdling victories on his CV and was runner-up to stablemate Doddiethegreat in the Pertemps Final at last season’s Cheltenham Festival.

Having finished third behind Wendigo in a Grade Two at Newbury on his fencing bow, Regent’s Stroll was a 4-11 favourite to come out top in an intriguing match and despite showing a tendency to veer left at some of his obstacles in front under Harry Cobden, he was straight and true over the last couple and passed the post with four and a quarter lengths in hand.

A delighted Nicholls told Racing TV: “The whole thing (was better than at Newbury), his behaviour beforehand, the way he travelled in the race, his jumping was fantastic – he’s learning at last.

“I’ve been quite hard on him the last 10 days, just to take the freshness off him. I think the big thing is we made an error taking the hood and the ring bit off him, extra brakes really.

“He’d been so good at home he caught us a bit by surprise that he was so free at Newbury, but we’ve learnt our lesson, he’s learnt his lesson and Harry in particular learned a lot about him that day.

“We’ve always thought a lot of him and the times he’s been beat have been because of immaturity and silliness really. We can build on that and we won’t over-face him too much this year, it’s all about next season really. That’s when we can start dreaming about him.

“Ultimately he’s definitely a three-mile horse and he’s got the size and scope to make a fantastic chaser, we’ve just got to keep on top of him and keep getting education into him.”

On a potential next race for Regent’s Stroll, the Ditcheat handler said: “I haven’t got a clue really. We had toyed with the idea of looking at Kempton in 10 days’ time, but that’s probably too soon – we don’t want to buzz him up too soon, we can switch him off and give him a break.

“There’s some lovely targets in the spring, races like the Pendil Novices’ Chase and the Scilly Isles. There’s some nice novice chases at Aintree and we may even consider Cheltenham, possibly.”