Landmark winner for Henderson Punchestowns gave trainer Nicky Henderson his 2000th winner in the 40% Better Off On Betfair SP Graduation Chase at Kempton this afternoon. The 4/6 favourite had to work hard to reel in the front-runner Pasco (5/2), but a fluent jump at the last sealed victory from his tired rival. The runner-up was sent into a clear lead by AP McCoy from an early stage but got tired turning for home and in the end was comfortably beaten by 11 lengths. Henderson said: "It's nice to get it out of the way and if you went back 32 years ago when I started training, you'd have said 2,000 winners would be fairly unlikely. "Amazingly, Judy Wilson gave Tony McCoy his 3,000th winner with Restless D'Artaix and now she's given us our 2,000th." Of Punchestowns, the Seven Barrows handler added: "Two and a half miles around here is sharp enough for him and, looking at that, you wouldn't say the Ryanair Chase is his race. "We might even sit still and keep him fresh for the three-miler at Aintree, but we'll see. I'm not ruling anything in or out."
