Bristol De Mai impressive in Peter Marsh

Bristol De Mai ran out a convincing winner of Haydock's Peter Marsh Handicap Chase, in which 'talking horse' Alary was pulled up.

The six-year-old grey relished the three-mile, stamina-sapping test as he pulled well clear of the opposition under Daryl Jacob.

Bristol De Mai (4-1 joint-favourite) absolutely stamped his authority on proceedings to complete a double for trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies after the earlier success of The New One.

Otago Trail stayed on well but was a distant second, beaten 22 lengths, with Bishops Road another three and a half lengths away in third.

Alary was sent off the fellow market leader on his first start for Colin Tizzard, but the French import was in trouble a long way from home and failed to complete under Aidan Coleman.

Bristol De Mai was subsequently cut to around 14-1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Nigel Twiston-Davies says plenty of time to decide between the Ryanair Chase and Gold Cup for impressive Haydock winner Bristol De Mai pic.twitter.com/ZKTOtrTtdw

— Racing UK (@Racing_UK) January 21, 2017

Twiston-Davies said: "Whether we are quite of the class of Thistlecrack will be seen to be believed. I'd lean towards the Gold Cup. It looks like he's a stayer now.

"It was very exciting and very pleasing.

"The thing about this horse is that in the early days he was buzzy and would go flat out. Now he's settled and you can put him anywhere you want in the race, and that all helps.

"He'll probably go up too much in handicaps so he'll be in one of the races at Cheltenham. It's up to the owners and we'll talk and work it out.

"He's in the Ryanair and Gold Cup and we can all have a long think about it. The Gold Cup looks impossible to win but we'll think about it. Jump racing is about dreams, so we can dream at the minute.

"It suited us, all the talk was about Colin's horse. I remember another race (Imperial Commander's Gold Cup success in 2010) when we were the forgotten one."

Jacob said: "He's an accurate jumper and has got scope as well. That was nearly back to one of his best performances.

"He's a six-year-old so I'm hoping he's going to keep improving.

"We're still some way off Graded level, but he's an exciting horse and a beautiful one to ride. He was a lovely horse last year but he wanted to get on with it now. He's more relaxed."

Coleman was at a loss to explain the performance of Alary, whose race ended before the fourth-last fence.

"I haven't got a clue what happened," said the jockey.

"He was going fine until we got halfway down the back for the second time."