Nicholls eyes £100,000 bonus after Malaya gives him first Imperial Cup victory

Paul Nicholls' purple patch is continuing at the perfect time as the Cheltenham Festival approaches and he snared his first Matchbook Imperial Cup as the Johnny de lay Hey-owned Malaya survived a mistake at the second-last to score at 7-1 for Harry Cobden.

Ante-post favourite Monsieur Lecoq momentarily looked as if he had the race won when storming into the lead at the second-last flight under Chester Williams, with Malaya hitting it hard and stumbling, all but unseating Cobden.

You can never discount Paul Nicholls though, and Malaya had to show similar resilience to claw back the leader, who had won over the course and distance on his previous start.

Malaya has Monsieur Lecoq in her sights jumping the final flightCredit: Mark Cranham

Nicholls, who will saddle Clan Des Obeaux in Friday's Cheltenham Gold Cup, said: "The horses are really well, I think that's six or seven winners this week.

"Malaya had run some good races last year and she ran very well in the Grade 1 at Auteuil in November before she fell – she would have been fourth. This had been the plan for a long time."

Only Olympian (1993), Blowing Wind (1998) and Gaspara (2007) went on to win at the festival after scoring at Sandown, but Malaya could attempt to emulate them according to Nicholls.

Her only entry is in the County Hurdle on Friday, for which she is 12-1 from 20-1 with Paddy Power, and she is now guaranteed a run as she will pick up a penalty.

On the £100,000 bonus, he added: "She's tough and won't need to do much work, it's definitely a possibility. We're not saving her for anything so we might look at it."

Blowing Wind is the only horse to complete that particular double, with Olympian winning the Coral Cup and Gaspara taking the Fred Winter.

Of those in behind, Speredek faded in the testing conditions after setting a typically ferocious early pace, but 3-1 favourite Call Me Lord stuck on well under his big weight to finish third under Daryl Jacob. Storm Rising was fourth.

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