David Pipe outlined the Grand National for King Turgeon after his feature success at Cheltenham’s December meeting on Friday.

Winning the spritely named ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Coming Soon Handicap Chase,’ continued his upward trajectory after winning the Grand Sefton Handicap at Aintree.

He would require another win to qualify for the most famous race in the calendar, but the team are remaining level-headed for now.

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Pipe said: “Our plan was to win the Sefton at Aintree, which he did and anything else was a bonus. He’ll now go up the weights, he could be a Grand National horse.

“Horse and jockey were very good, the jumping mistakes he made probably helped him a little bit, in the sense that the others just got on with it.

“He battled on well; he’s matured through the summer, and he is improving at a fast rate. He has a great attitude and its fantastic for the syndicate, I think a few of them had heart attacks!

“It’s lovely to have some nice young horses coming through. This guy is a lively individual. He enjoys getting on with it, he’s put up a career best.

"He’s a fairly easy horse to train, quite bubbly, but he’s by Turgeon who are often late developers and he’s improved a lot in the summer.”

Elsewhere there was success for Warwickshire trainer Olly Murphy, who took the final race of the card with Long Draw.

It was an overdue victory for this promising five-year-old who finished second on his previous four starts.

A delighted Murphy said: “I was going to give him a Winter break! I swore to the owner and whispered in the horse’s ear 'I’ll give you a break after this mate!'”

“I was so scared to go three miles with him, I hate going that far at five-years-old, because once you go three you don’t go back. I always knew we had that up our sleeve and he’s improved for the step up in trip.

“He might run in a Pertemps qualifier now, and then have a crack at that race in March.

“I don’t see why he couldn’t improve again! People wrote him off after his seconds, he got stuffed in a Southwell maiden hurdle, he scraped home round Ffos Las, you just needed to give him time to naturally improve.”

Potentially the most taking performance of the day was Jango Baie in the SSS Super Alloys Novices’ Chase for Nicky Henderson.

He jumped exquisitely for a horse making his chase debut, beating well established rivals and confirming he has an exciting future over fences.

Nicky Henderson said: “It was perfect! I don’t really like running novices here first time over fences, I’ve frightened a few good horses, we brought Might Bite here and I thought he was brilliant at home, and we frightened him so much we had to put him over hurdles for a year!

“He’s not the biggest horse but he’s got a lot of scope, Nico asked him a lot of questions and it gave the horse confidence.

“He’s got speed, he quickened up nicely there and was going away. He could be a sort of Reynoldstown Horse.

It wouldn’t be a Cheltenham meeting without an Irish victory and Stumptown won the Glenfarclas Crystal Cup Cross Country Handicap Chase for Gavin Cromwell.

He believed the unique test this discipline provides has taken this horse to a new level, confirming they will be back in March for same race at the festival.

Cromwell said: “He’s really taken to this format, we are delighted. The cross country has changed him, since he switched over and from Punchestown to now he has been amazing, the improvement has been huge.”

“We did a little bit of schooling when he first started this discipline, but he’s taken to it very well. The most important thing is he enjoys it, if the horse doesn’t then you have no chance.”

Elsewhere on the card there were wins for Dan Skelton, Heather Main and Dr Richard Newland and Jamie Insole, with Country Park, Numitor and Mirabad respectively.

Skelton was particularly pleased with his novice hurdler saying: “I thought he was coming to win at Haydock the last day, but he just left a leg at the last and pitched Harry forward and couldn’t pick back up on the ground. it’s good form.

“He’s much better on that ground today, that’s number one. We’ve always thought he was a good horse, he’s a bit raw and there’s a few things to tidy up, his jumping could be better.

“I’m pleasantly surprised, sometimes when a horse surprises you, you have to confirm the promise."