'The Stayers' Hurdle is what we’ve been building towards' - Lucky Place toughs it out to keep Nicky Henderson in buoyant festive mood

Nicky Henderson’s fantastic festive period continued when Lucky Place emerged as Seven Barrows’ latest Cheltenham Festival contender with a steely victory in the Dornan Engineering Relkeel Hurdle.

While his star stablemates Constitution Hill and Sir Gino produced moments of magic at Kempton, the six-year-old showed incredible determination to hold off Gowel Road in a fierce battle up the straight to take the Grade 2 prize.

It pushed him towards a potential Stayers’ Hurdle tilt and he is no bigger than 16-1 for that target, with the Cleeve Hurdle on Cheltenham’s Trials day card at the end of the month suggested as a potential stepping stone.

That would be his first try at three miles but stamina certainly proved his asset in this six-runner affair. Nico de Boinville, buoyed by the return to form of Chantry House in the 3m1½f handicap chase earlier in the day, took up a prominent position behind Gowel Road as little changed for much of the race.

Lucky Place made his move approaching two out and had a narrow lead over Gowel Road at the last, where Salver’s chance ended with a fall. The 5-2 favourite Golden Ace threatened but could not go with the front two as Lucky Place outmuscled the long-time leader on the run-in, winning by three-quarters of a length.

Lucky Place: set for a tilt at the Stayers'Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Henderson said: “He's the kind of horse who's very hard to find. He wants to do it, play, jump and he seems to be progressing quite quickly as well. He creeps under the radar a little bit because he's just such a straightforward, honest horse and he's not flashy, but he gets it done. I think it's down to his natural strength, so we'll probably play to that.

"I think the Stayers' Hurdle is what we’ve been building up towards. I was thinking of the Long Walk Hurdle but this was really always the plan. Stamina has won it for him. You’d say the obvious thing to do is step him up in trip before then and the Cleeve Hurdle could be the answer to that. We can find out there if he stays."

Henderson may have enjoyed saying goodbye to a troublesome 2024. The year featured a frustrating festival, with the poor health of his string in the build-up to Cheltenham forcing him to pull out key runners and leading to a blank at the meeting for the first time in 16 years.

However, he ended the year on a high with Constitution Hill and Sir Gino, absentees in March, producing sparkling performances and leaving them odds-on to prevail at this season's festival. 

Lucky Place produced the perfect conclusion to a phenomenal six days and Henderson said: “It's been hard work this week and everybody's been flat to the boards. 

“It was the right decision [not to run] at the time and at the moment it seems like it was the right thing to do. We didn't do any damage and if we'd have run them, we could have done huge damage.

“Everybody at home had to suffer last season and it wasn't any fun. It all goes around and every trainer knows this. When you're up, somebody else will be down and when you're down, somebody else will be up. It's a strange world.

“Our horses are consistent at the moment and it’s lovely. You’ve got to appreciate it when it’s that way.”

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