'He'll be a proper horse' - Nicky Henderson excited for the future as Southoftheborder extends winning run

Southoftheborder impressed at SandownCredit: Mark Cranham

Nicky Henderson looks to have added another exciting novice to his impressive ranks after Southoftheborder completed a comfortable success in the 2m maiden hurdle.

The five-year-old, who was purchased for £145,000 at the Goffs UK Sale in December, stretched his unbeaten run to two after winning by two and a half lengths on his hurdling debut.

Henderson believes there is plenty more to come from Southoftheborder, who remained a 25-1 shot for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival in March.

He said: "He'll be a proper horse; we've only taken half of the wraps off him. It's nice because we've got a lot of good novices coming out at the moment.

"You wouldn't want to overdo this fella because he's very big and you could wind him up too much. We've gone very gently with him. Nico [de Boinville, jockey] said he was lovely and he could have gone around again."

Henderson added: "I should think the Listed race here on Tingle Creek weekend could be the sort of thing we'd look at, but he'd want to go gently. He will get further when we want to. Derek O'Connor told us to buy him."

Drought over

Trainer Pam Sly ended a run of six months without a winner as Xcitations landed the feature 1m7½f handicap chase.

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