Vicente digs deep in Cheltenham Vicente showed stamina in abundance when staying on strongest of them all to spring a surprise in the mallardjewellers.com Novices' Chase. Despite giving weight away to all five of his rivals, the 16-1 shot knuckled down to the task in hand to floor odds-on favourite Un Temps Pour Tout as that one made his chasing bow. Kept wide for much of the race by Sam Twiston-Davies, the six-year-old appeared to have plenty left in the tank when joining David Pipe's French Champion Hurdle hero rounding the home turn. Although neither took the penultimate fence in the extended three-mile contest brilliantly, it was the Paul Nicholls-trained runner that quickened up the better on landing to open up a slender advantage. Putting in a bold jump over the last, Vicente continued to find more to hold off the rallying 4-5 favourite by two and three-quarter lengths. Nicholls said: "That was good. It was not a turn up as he should have won the last day here if he had jumped. "We rode him differently today and I wanted Sam to sit quietly and go as wide as he could. He made a mistake down the back and did well to get back into it. "Obviously he has improved a lot. It was the best I've seen him today when I saddled him. That was a proper performance giving 8lb to the favourite. He has always threatened to be a nice horse and he has took a long time to come into himself. "He might be one for the four-miler (at the Festival) as he stays forever and we have Will Biddick in the team. On that run it puts him right among the best of them on weights." Twiston-Davies said: "Paul said in the paddock beforehand he couldn't work out why he was 16-1 and he was right, so happy days. "He needs space to see what he's doing and to think about it, he was a lot better than he was the other day and hopefully he'll take another step forward. "He had to jump the last two well and he did." Although disappointed with the defeat of Un Temps Pour Tout, Pipe still took several positives from the performance. He said: "It's always disappointing when they get beat. He jumped well and travelled well, he will improve for the run and he will improve for softer ground as well. "We left the blinkers off today, but we will put them back on later on in the season. We will see where we go next, but it's a long old season."
