Capitaine survives early scare to deliver on chasing debut

Apart from a hiccup at the first fence, smart hurdler Capitaine was not hard pressed to see off The Gipper in the 2m½f beginners’ chase and deliver at odds of 4-9.

Sam Twiston-Davies had to sit tight when the five-year-old dived violently right at the opening fence, but from that point he was almost foot perfect and trainer Paul Nicholls declared himself “very happy with the performance”.

Looking back at the first-fence error, he said: “That’s what novice chases are all about – he has never been the most straightforward horse but now he's got that out of the way he'll be fine as he jumped well enough afterwards.