THE Placepot on this Cheltenham card paid well over £8,000. That was hardly surprising as Wolf Of Windlesham won the first at 12/1 and Vicente the second, a four-runner affair, at 16/1.

The Grade 2 JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial provided the perfect example of ‘big’ stables dominating the market. Paul Nicholls’ Romain De Senam started at 5/6 and Alan King’s Oceane 11/4 in a five-runner race but neither made the first two.

Despite winning by 17 lengths on his debut at Ludlow, Wolf Of Windlesham, trained by Stuart Edmunds in Buckinghamshire, was easy to back but won strictly on merit, leading soon after the second-last and keeping on to beat 25/1 chance Coo Star Sivola by half a length with the favourite only third.

The race may have little bearing on the Triumph Hurdle itself. Wolf Of Windlesham raced over shorter trips on the level, where he wore blinkers.

Even so, he did well here and was giving Edmunds his first winner (with his first Cheltenham runner) after 30 years as assistant to the late Renee Robeson. There were no excuses for the beaten horses and both Nicholls and King will have stronger contenders in March.

VICENTE VICTORIOUS

David Pipe’s Un Temps Pour Tout, impressive winner of the French Champion Hurdle, seemed very short at 4/5 when making his chasing debut in the mallardjewellers.com Novices’ Chase over the extended three miles. He generally travelled well and, despite being niggled along by Tom Scudamore, seemed to have it won when Blaklion came down three out.

However, Vicente and Sam Twiston-Davies challenged before the last and gradually wore down the favourite to score by just under three lengths with the other two in another parish.

Not many Nicholls-trained winners start at 16/1 but Vicente, beaten here last month, was more experienced over fences, looked extremely fit and ironed out minor jumping errors, as well as one serious one, as he went along, largely thanks to his jockey. He was conceding the runner-up 8lb.

Un Temps Pour Tout should do better next time and probably wants genuinely soft as opposed to tacky ground. Pipe said blinkers would go back on in future.