Aintree rather than Cheltenham for impressive Handstands but Ben Pauling eyeing Grade 1 at Sandown first

Handstands: winner of the Towton Novices' ChaseCredit: Steve Davies

Ben Pauling holds Handstands in the highest regard after he produced a classy performance to land the Grade 2 DragonBet Towton Novices' Chase and continue the trainer’s stellar season with his novices.

Handstands recorded his fifth career win from seven starts, with last year's Gallagher Novices' Hurdle, won by Ballyburn at the Cheltenham Festival, and a chase debut at Wincanton when falling three out, his only defeats.

The nine-length victory confirmed the promise of the Tim Radford-owned six-year-old, who could return to the top level for next month’s Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown.

Pauling said: "I think that’ll work out to be a good performance and he’s a decent horse with a good future. The Scilly Isles was always the plan and Ben [Jones, jockey] said he was fresh as a daisy coming in, which is good. If he’s fit and well over the next few days, and if he’s in the same bit of form then 100 per cent he’ll go to Sandown.

"That will, undoubtedly, have been a hard race and we’ve got to hope he bounces out of it because I wouldn’t want to run him under par."

Handstands was one of only two finishers in the six-runner contest as Range fell at the seventh, while Saint Davy took a heavy fall at the third last and hampered Hillcrest, who unseated Sam Twiston-Davies. Cherie D'Am, who quickly weakened under Harry Skelton, also came down at the same fence.

Handstands backed up his success over three miles in the Grade 2 Esher Novices' Chase, and Pauling added: “It was another step in the right direction.

"It was a funny one because the ground looked very hard work. Although he won on proper wet ground at Huntingdon, I was a little nervous how he’d take it today. He jumped a little bit [like a] novice and bold, and hung in the air at a couple of fences because it was probably hard to get out of the ground. But ultimately he put the race bed with ease."

Handstands was cut to 20-1 (from 40s) with Betfair for the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, but Pauling believes Aintree could be on the radar for his five-time winner.

He said: "He wasn’t himself when he turned up at Cheltenham last year and I don’t think it’s necessarily on his agenda this year. He’s more likely to go to Aintree, and that’s mainly the owners preference over mine.

"It’s not that I don’t think he’s good enough. If we’re going to go to Sandown then he would have had a busy period up to Cheltenham and that bit of extra time before Aintree would see him to his best."

Lord Of Thunder was hampered by Hillcrest but stayed on to finish second, and Joe Tizzard said: "It was a pleasing run as we were chucking him in the deep end to see where we were, but it’s probably his best run over fences.

"He got hampered and I thought he’d struggle to get back into it, but he enjoyed passing horses turning in and he didn’t get gifted second."

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