'He'll be a much, much better horse at Cheltenham' - Harry Derham's Boodles hope narrowly gets off the mark

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Turn And Finish will prove far better at the Cheltenham Festival, according to trainer Harry Derham, after the 2-9 favourite scraped home to win by a nose on his stable debut.

The 1m7½f juvenile maiden hurdle was used as a warm-up for the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle in March for the 125-rated four-year-old, who had placed twice in five starts over hurdles for Joseph O'Brien.

Turn And Finish led in the early stages and looked well in control under Paul O'Brien after jumping the last before runner-up Maple flew home and only narrowly missed out. William Hill pushed the winner's price out to 33-1 (from 16s) for the festival.

"It was a messy, unsatisfactory race and he was well short of maximum fitness," Derham said. "He came over from Joseph and we gave him a break when he got here. We just wanted to give him a race to help with our preparations for the Fred Winter.

"That's nowhere near his best and he'll be much better in a strongly run race coming off the pace. His Irish form also suggests that. It's job done, though, and all roads lead to the Cheltenham Festival.

"He'll be a much, much better horse in the middle of March. He jumps well and travels strongly and looks a hurdling type, and for most of that race he was looking around and thinking what was going on. I think 24 runners going flat out in front of him will be much better."

Great form continues

Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith made it seven winners from their last 26 runners when completing a double. Valence D'Aumont held off Kings Justice by a nose in the 2m3f handicap chase before The Paddy Pie scored under conditional Jack Power in the 3m1f handicap chase.

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