Menorah lands Greatwood Hurdle Menorah responded well to pressure to justify Philip Hobbs' confidence when landing the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle. The top-weight travelled well just off a steady pace but had to pull out all the stops to prevail by a neck from the four year old Bothy who had been front rank throughout. That was a career best effort from Brian Ellison's youngster who finished clear of Manyriverstocross in third and Any Given Day in fourth. The strongly fancied Sanctuaire fell when held whilst Get Me Out Of Here dropped out tamely. Sky Bet have cut the winner from 7-1 to 14-1 for the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. "I'm very impressed. With top weight today on that ground I thought it would be hard for him," said the delighted winning rider Richard Johnson. "To be fair to him, he stumbled at the back of the last. If he hadn't done that I think he would have won a bit easier. "It's just fantastic to have a horse like this for the future. "When I asked him after the last, he just knuckled down and kept finding more and more. "He's very good, he was last year, and hopefully we have found the key to him now." Hobbs added: "It was a very good performance, especially as he had to go so wide as the ground was definitely better wider, and ideally he doesn't want it too soft. "He knocked the third-last out of the ground. Normally his jumping is very good, but in spite of all that he still won so we're very pleased. "He's only five and I hope there's room for a fair bit of improvement. Let's hope he's up there with my two previous winners of this race, Rooster Booster and Detroit City. "After today you'd imagine we'd have to go the conditions hurdle route depending on what the handicapper does. "I suppose the old Bula Hurdle back here might be next, but he'd have a large penalty in that. Otherwise he'd go for the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton. It will be one or the other."
