WHEN Santini won the Grade 1 Doom Bar Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree in 2018 he was the first homebred winner at that level for Richard and Lizzie Kelvin-Hughes, owners of Trull House Stud. Now the eight-year-old son of Milan (Sadler’s Wells) is aiming for a Grade 1 over fences, the Cheltenham Gold Cup being his focus now.

A point-to-point graduate from the British version, he was once listed as having been sold for £150,000 to Dan Skelton Racing at the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Festival Sale. Instead he joined Nicky Henderson who had saddled the gelding’s dam Tinagoodnight, a daughter of Sleeping Car (Dunphy), to win over hurdles as a three-year-old. This followed her import from France where she was successful on the flat.