CHAMPERS On Ice came close to providing leading owners Professor Caroline Tisdall and Bryan Drew with Cheltenham Festival success last year as the grey gelding, a point-to-point winner at The Pigeons as a five-year-old whom the pair own in partnership, was beaten by less than three lengths in the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle by the leading stayers’ hurdle contender Unowhatimeanharry.

With Champers On Ice (by Robin Des Champs) currently navigating his way through his novice chase campaign, finishing second to fellow point-to-point graduate American in a listed contest at Warwick last Saturday, his owners and current trainer David Pipe, have returned to the point-to-point fields to source their next investment and have privately acquired last month’s impressive Lingstown maiden winner Warthog.