Milton Harris keeps smiling after his punting nightmare - but it's bleak for the Brits at Kempton

For a man who had almost certainly just thrown away £2,000 and seen a Cheltenham dream extinguished, Milton Harris was in remarkably good humour.

While perched on a wall close to the weighing-room entrance, he spotted Paul Nicholls walking purposefully in his direction. The champion trainer was in buoyant form after watching Solo give him a 13th win in the Pendil Novices' Chase, whereas Harris was trying to make sense of Scriptwriter's dismal effort in the preceding contest. Confused he might have been. Forlorn, he was not.

"You've had beginner's luck in that race today," said Harris to Nicholls with a smile. There had been absolutely no reason for him to smile around 40 minutes earlier when Scriptwriter lined up in Kempton's opener, a Grade 2 prize Harris hoped would confirm the festival credentials of a juvenile who started the day as Britain's shortest-priced candidate for the JCB Triumph Hurdle. Instead the 6-4 favourite flopped, trudging home a smidgeon over 35 lengths behind an Irish opponent no longer deemed smart enough to hold a Triumph entry.