Denvale enters festival picture

Denvale has put up a fine display of jumping to take the Wilmot-Smith Memorial Cup at Wetherby.

Rowan Cope sent the 4-1 shot to the front after the sixth fence and never putting a foot wrong – unlike most of his rivals – he galloped away to win by three lengths from Marrasit.

The eight-year-old could now be bound for the Christie’s Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Trainer Caroline Bailey said: “He just gallops and stays and likes the cut in the ground.

“He’s a super jumper and that’s why we’ve come hunter chasing rather than go down the point-to-point route.

“He won at Towcester last year and we thought he’d go on. But he wasn’t right over the last couple of months of the season. Hopefully we’ve got him back to his best.

“We’ll try and get another run into him probably at Warwick or Haydock and then we’ll see about Cheltenham. But he would need cut in the ground.”