ALTIOR survived a heavy downpour and a determined Un De Sceaux to extended his winning streak to 15 in the Grade 1 Betfair Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown.

Nicky Henderson’s star was unproven on such testing ground and faced arguably his toughest test to date up against Un De Sceaux, Sceau Royal and Saint Calvados.

As expected, Saint Calvados and Un De Sceuax made sure there was no hanging about – but Nico de Boinville was intent to not let them get too far ahead.

With the exception of jumping too big at the open ditch early on, Altior’s fencing was at its slickest, although Un De Sceaux made him pull out all the stops.

Turning in it seemed a matter of ‘how far’ for Altior as he loomed alongside the diminutive Un De Sceaux, but Willie Mullins’ multiple Grade 1 winner did not go down without a fight.

When Altior got in slightly tight to the last it gave Ruby Walsh chance to steal a length, but as he has done in the past, the 8/13 favourite powered up the hill to win going away.

Henderson: “That was special, I think that was really testing him today and, like Buveur D’Air last week, if he was going to get beat it would have been today.

“When you have genuine championship horses it is great people appreciate them, but it does make you feel the pressure.

“They were four very good horses in horrible ground today and they’ve all run their best.”