No issues for Altior on chasing debut Altior made an almost faultless fencing debut in the Weatherbys Supports Starlight Novices' Chase at Kempton. A hugely impressive winner of the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March, Nicky Henderson made the slightly surprising decision to head straight over fences with the six-year-old. Altior faced only one rival at Kempton, the Paul Nicholls-trained Black Corton, and after two fences Noel Fehily decided his partner was not going fast enough and took up the running. The 2-13 favourite jumped smoothly throughout, bar one minor hiccup at the fifth-last fence, to which which he got a bit close, but other than that it was hard to pick fault in a performance which yielded a 63-length verdict. He will face far harder tasks than this, and Henderson will be keen to get more experience into him before the Racing Post Arkle Trophy, for which he is the ante-post favourite, at the Cheltenham Festival. Henderson said: "He had a nice little blow and had a school round and he'll go to Sandown on Saturday week for the Henry VIII (Novices' Chase). "He races with his head low, which is lovely and a great way to go over fences. "We were debating whether to make him a Champion Hurdle horse. We could if we wanted to, but he's been so good at this. "He's built like a chaser and I thought he jumped great. "He had a nice pop round and he jumped really well, getting a run under his belt. "There are options, but we might as well go to Sandown. "Noel sat on him on Friday and he jumped 10 fences and he was electric. He's been frighteningly good all the way through. "He has pure pace and I would not even think about stepping him up in trip. "I'm pretty sure Charbel is going to Sandown so we'll know we'll get a good pace, which will help him. "That was a good start and I was happy with it." Henderson had earlier won the Coolmore Stallions EBF "National Hunt" Novices' Hurdle with Lough Derg Spirit. A winning point-to-pointer, he certainly did not look short of speed as he made all the running under Jerry McGrath. The 2-1 favourite pinged the last and scooted clear to win by three and a half lengths from Coup De Pinceau. "He did everything right there," said Henderson. "He'd been very good at home and we were hoping he'd do something like that. "I wouldn't know what we'd do next, but he's nice."
