'He's got a very good mark to go from' - Off To A Flyer bounces back under masterful ride from Freddie Gingell

Freddie Gingell produced a masterful front-running ride on Off To A Flyer to land the 3m1f conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle.

Returning to hurdles after an unsuccessful spell chasing, the Joe Tizzard-trained seven-year-old didn't always jump fluently but drew clear under Gingell to score by seven and a half lengths.

Gingell told Racing TV: "He's quite laid back. When we jumped off he was travelling really well and the whole time I thought I'd gone a little bit too hard, but I managed to get a breather into him just coming around the bend and then I gave him a squeeze and he was gone. His jumping wasn't quite there but obviously it's his first run back over hurdles after chasing and he's allowed that.

"Hopefully he should have a nice little spell over hurdles. He had a very good mark when he won at Ayr [in April last year], he was rated 120 over hurdles and now he's off 107, so he's got a very good mark to go from."

Gingell landed a first Grade 1 success on Elixir De Nutz last season and has aspirations of being crowned champion conditional.

He said: "I think I'm joint-lead now in the conditionals' championship, so it would be nice to have a good winter now and see how we go. It would be very nice to have season like the last, but we'll see how we get on."

Webber denied

There was no fairytale end to Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot-winning trainer Paul Webber's career as his final runner Pep Talking finished second to Great Samourai in the 2m½f handicap chase.

Webber plans to continue his involvement in racing by lending his support to fledgling trainer Billy Aprahamian, who is based just 20 minutes away in Adstone.

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