Barters Hill fights to seize Doncaster honours Barters Hill was the personification of bravery as Ben Pauling's inmate preserved his unbeaten record in the Albert Bartlett Novices´ Hurdle at Doncaster. The Grade One-winning six-year-old did not jump fluently - most notably at the fourth- and second-last - but he really showed what he was made off at the business end. With Irish challenger Up For Review having folded meekly, the hat-trick-seeking Ballydine emerged as the biggest danger late on. But even accounting for his rather lackadaisical jumping, Barters Hill was in an unforgiving mood and got the job done as the 4-7 favourite in the hands of David Bass. Pauling said: "I'm over the moon. David said he didn't jump quite as fluently as he was hassled (by Up For Review). "He's had a tough race, but we've still got six weeks (before the Cheltenham Festival). "There's no pressure now. He's still unbeaten, and that's the main thing. "He's a horse of a lifetime." Barters Hill is the general favourite for the Albert Bartlett at the Cheltenham Festival, but Pauling has not yet ruled out running him in the Neptune. The Gloucestershire trainer said: "That just shows how tough he is, he had every right to get beaten - they'd set it up for something to come from behind but he still found more. "For the first time he'd been taken on for the lead so that answered another question. "David (Bass) will tell me Albert Bartlett but I'd be scared of nothing in the Neptune. "He travelled so much better for the better ground - I haven't ruled the Neptune out."
