THE Grade 2 contest was saved from Huntingdon's abandoned card on Sunday and Nicky Henderson was certainly pleased that was the case.

Henderson was responsible for two of only four starters, with Josses Hill, the winner 12 months ago, taking the field along.

Paul Nicholls' Ptit Zig moved up to challenge four out, but Daryl Jacob always looked to have matters under control on the 4-9 favourite.

The diminutive Top Notch jumped into a narrow advantage at the second-last and while he did not jump the final fence completely cleanly, he was not hard ridden to comfortably beat his stablemate.

The winner was left unchanged at 6-1 by Paddy Power for the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham in March.