Handstands springs to impressive debut win to continue Ben Pauling and Tim Radford's golden week

Expensive purchase Handstands made a fine rules debut and maintained his perfect record when an impressive winner of the 2m3½f novice hurdle.

Trained by Ben Pauling, the four-year-old was bought for £135,000 after winning a 3m point-to-point and, despite showing signs of inexperience, went clear to win by six and a half lengths under Ben Jones.

Pauling said: "He's a really nice, straightforward horse. He doesn't do anything overly flash, but just does it very nicely at the same time.

"We hope this can be a nice starting point. We'll find another novice race under a penalty somewhere else next to see if we can think about better things."

Handstands runs in the colours of Tim Radford, who owned stars such as Somersby and Racing Demon, and he continued Radford and Pauling's winning run this week together.

Pauling added: "It's great to have a good few horses for him. He's got Fiercely Proud with us too, who won at Taunton on Thursday, and it's really nice to have them too. Hopefully he's getting the fun he deserves."

High five

Venetia Williams' remarkable record in the feature 3m1f mares' handicap chase final continued when Heva Rose got up to win under Harry Bannister.

The six-year-old's success meant the trainer has landed the last five runnings of the race.

Sweet Lord

The popular Call Me Lord defied top weight to make a winning return in the 2m3½f handicap hurdle. 

Read this next:

'I thought it was over' - Gavin Sheehan times it right as Fugitif gets up in final stride of thrilling December Gold Cup 

Do you want £400+ of free bets? Racing Post have got the best offers, all in one place. Visit racingpost.com/freebets to find out more.