ROBCOUR has become the go-to team for unearthing Stayers’ Hurdle winners and they might just have found their next big candidate for the Festival prize in Slade Steel, who recorded his first win of the season in the Grade 2 Rathbarry & Glenview Studs Hurdle.

After a spell over fences that saw him placed multiple times and sixth on his previous outing in the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase at Cheltenham, he appeared to relish reverting to hurdles in the first-time cheekpieces under Darragh O’Keeffe. This 6/1 success, beating Kawaboomga by a length and a quarter, ought to have given plenty of satisfaction to Henry de Bromhead.

“I’m delighted for the horse and everyone involved,” the winning trainer said of his former Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner.

“He was a bit unlucky at Punchestown at Christmas to get brought down and he just didn’t seem to love the old chasing so we’d said we’d pop back to hurdling.

“I would guess he’ll stay down the hurdles route now. He’s made a pretty strong case for it. He travelled so well, he probably idled a little bit when he hit the front but he was brilliant.”

Asked how far he might be able to stay, de Bromhead added: “He was only just chinned in a beginners’ chase at Navan on bottomless ground over three miles so he’s proven he probably gets that, on a bit nicer ground. He’s got a lot of class as well, so we’ll see.”

Slade Steel has a quote of 25/1 for the 2027 Stayers’ Hurdle over a half a mile further than today’s contest.