No stopping Pause And Clause in Martin Pipe

Report: Cheltenham, Friday

Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle 2m4½f, 4yo+

LAST year's Coral Cup third Pause And Clause returned to the scene of his career-best performance to give trainer Emma Lavelle her second Cheltenham Festival winner in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.

Johnny Farrelly, who is attached to the David Pipe yard, plotted a wide course on Pause And Clause, making a decisive move between the second-last and the long run to the final hurdle that left him as the one to catch.

As the prominent runners, including long-time leader Quentin Collonges and Lord Generous, began tofall by the wayside, the main dangers to come out of the pack, most notably Radium and Clova Island, started to assert, though the 14-1 winner had first run on the field and approached the last flight a few lengths clear.

Runner-up Radium (14-1) began to make slight inroads on the leader, but Farrelly, riding his first festival winner, kept enough in the tank. Clova Island, also 14-1, and Peveril (5-1), who got slightly outpaced but stayed on well, completed the placings.

Farrelly said: "It's fantastic. Mr Pipe was giving me a bit of stick this morning about not having ridden a winner at Cheltenham, so I though I could put that right.

"It's my first ride for Emma and Jack [Doyle, regular rider] told me how to ride him. The rain hasn't really got intot the ground and it was good enough underneath for him."

Lavelle, whose first festival success came in 2008 courtesy of Fred Winter winner Crack Away Jack, added ofthe winner: "He ran such a good race last year in the Coral Cup, but with all this rain, I thought 'no, please stop raining'.

"Johnny gave him a fantastic ride."