NOTHING changes the fact that the Tizzard stable has enjoyed a splendid season and two more winners on this card, the second of them ridden by Powell, promised another great day before Golden Chieftain’s untimely departure.

Firstly, Justatenner (9/1), then 11/1 shot Marrayana took the later handicap hurdle by the same margin from Jonjo O’Neill’s Champagne at Tara.

Both winners are owned by Mrs Sylvia Tainton, who has had horses in training for some fifty years, recently with Michael Scudamore. It was the latter’s grandson Tom, fresh from a successful Cheltenham, who rode Justatenner but a fall in the next meant that Powell took over on Murrayana.

He learned of this chance opportunity only five minutes before the jockeys were called and then picked up a four-day whip ban as Murrayana gave everything.

As if to underline the up-and-down nature of the National Hunt game, Scudamore was taken to hospital with shoulder and chest injuries.

THE RIGHT RACE

On a good afternoon for Welsh trainers, Peter Bowen’s Henri Parry Morgan, 7/1, ran away with the novices’ limited handicap chase in the hands of son Sean.

The race was worth nearly £19,000 and justified Bowen senior’s decision to come here rather than go for the Kim Muir at Cheltenham, where a bigger field and stiffer opposition would have meant a very different task.

“He’s been transformed by fences and the tongue-tie,” the trainer said. “If the ground isn’t too fast we might go for the Scottish National or the (former) Whitbread with him.”