Venetia Williams enhances red-hot form as Heros scores on chase debut

Heros enhanced Venetia Williams' formidable run of form in recent days with a decisive victory in the feature novice handicap chase.

The six-year-old, who had scored just once in nine starts over hurdles, relished the switch to chasing to run home an easy winner of the 2m2f contest under Charlie Deutsch, claiming Williams' fourth win from her last five runners.

The promising novice pulled clear after the last to score by two and three-quarter lengths from Non Stop and enhanced his trainer's impressive strike-rate in the last fortnight to 45 per cent.

 "You'd have to be delighted," Williams told Racing TV of her form. "I don't know why, but I'll take it!

"Quite a few of these horses are first-season chasers and sometimes you can have relatively ordinary hurdlers who fences make the difference. It certainly applies to him.

"He had to battle and they went a good gallop. I was pleased the rain came this morning and I hope there's plenty more to come."

Novices to note

Paul Nicholls was also in flying form after he completed a clean sweep of the 2m½f novice hurdle divisions, as both he and Harry Cobden secured doubles.

Harry Cobden and Matterhorn clear the last for a comfortable victory in the first division of the novice hurdleCredit: Alan Crowhurst

While Panjari was a comfortable five-and-a-half-length winner of the second division, it was the five-year-old Matterhorn who caught the eye after romping home by 16 lengths in his first start of the season.

Birthday success

Ben Jones celebrated his birthday with a winner as he partnered Justshortofabubble to land the 2m7f handicap chase.

It was Jones's third success on the six-year-old following wins at Stratford in August and Bangor last month.

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