Alexei takes Kingwell Hurdle crown, now for Cheltenham Alexei booked his ticket for the Champion Hurdle with a workmanlike display in the BetMGM Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton. Stepping out of handicap company having won the Greatwood Hurdle and a valuable prize at Ascot already this season, the Joe Tizzard-trained gelding proved he was at least up to Grade Two level. Travelling strongly, Brendan Powell tracked the front-running Rubaud into the straight and despite having a long look at the final flight, he jumped into the lead. Rubaud kept him honest on the run to the line, but Alexei quickened up to win by a length and a quarter. Tizzard was at Ascot, where he said of the 1-2 favourite: “He’s a good traveller through a race. Whether he’s good enough (for the Champion Hurdle) we’ll find out. One thing he will do is travel into it and if he’s good enough, he’s good enough. “It’s exciting to have a runner in the Champion Hurdle, there’s a first time for everything, and this is a nice winner in its own right. “I only watched the race on my phone, but from what I saw he did it nicely, it was his first time in graded company and he’s won. “Rubaud is a good yardstick and he loves it round Wincanton, so I’m pleased.” He added: “If you’d said to us in the autumn he was a Champion Hurdle horse, he was nowhere near it, but we’ve had a cracking season with him and we’ll roll the dice.” Powell said: “I followed Sam (Twiston-Davies on Rubaud) because I knew he’d go on and it all went quite swimmingly really. “I wanted to put the race to bed between two out and the last. He had a bit of a look at the last, he has done that before but he got from A to B. “It gave the second horse a bit of a sniff, but I was really happy with the way he picked up again, especially in that ground.” Tizzard’s father, Colin, said: “A whole load of Champion Hurdle winners have won this on the way, last year’s first and second (Golden Ace and Burdett Road, went on to be first and second at Cheltenham), I think there’s eight who have done it. “He’ll go there and on that he deserves to have his chance, everyone thinks he’ll be better on better ground.” Garth Broom owns Alexei with his wife, Anne, under the Brocade Racing banner and knows the highs and lows of Cheltenham, the former spectacularly illustrated by the Gold Cup victory of Native River in 2018. Celebrating his birthday in the best possible fashion, Broom said: “It’s a great way to celebrate and this is my first day back racing after spending three weeks in hospital in January after a nasty reaction to my asthma. “I haven’t had a horse good enough to run in this race, so to win it is fantastic. “I hope it’s better ground at Cheltenham as he’s a pure speed horse so he’s done really well to handle this ground. The faster the better for him. We’re going to Cheltenham with an outside chance, but to even go there at all is special. If you’re not in, you can’t win. “We’ve also got Sober Glory going for the Supreme, but we’ve been to Cheltenham with high expectations before and apart from with Native River you get put in your place pretty firmly, so we’ll only go quietly hopeful.”
