Ben Pauling's fine season continued at Ascot on Saturday, where The Jukebox Kid starred in a treble for the trainer with victory in the Injured Jockeys Fund Ambassadors Programme Reynoldstown Novices' Chase.
It was the King George VI triumph of The Jukebox Man that is the highlight of Pauling's season so far, but his younger stablemate, who was sent off the 4-9 favourite, put in an assured display of jumping in the Grade Two contest to come home a cosy five and a half lengths clear in the hands of Ben Jones.
The Jukebox Kid could now swerve an outing at the Cheltenham Festival, with the Naunton Downs handler eyeing a trip to Ireland to take on the old enemy in their own back yard at Fairyhouse over Easter.
Pauling said: "His jumping is his asset and this horse can be cold early so I was really pleased to see him jump off and attack his fences.
"I was a bit concerned with it being a three-runner race that it could be a muddling affair, but Ben set out to make it and he keeps getting stronger and stronger as the race goes on.
"I don't think he will go to Cheltenham and maybe a tilt at the Irish National could be on the cards. He's improving, at the right end of the handicap and I think he would stay every yard of the trip."
Pauling and Jones had earlier taken the opening Betfair Novices' Hurdle with exciting prospect Mondoui'boy, who could now be set for his own high-ranking assignments having obliged as the 8-11 favourite.
"He had to take a step forward today and he was very quick in and out," added Pauling. "Ben has just got off and said he's a lovely horse for the future.
"Cheltenham is three weeks on Tuesday so we'll only go there if we think it's genuinely an option. Ben did get off and say he wouldn't be going back in trip as he was flat out early doors so I would be leaning towards the three mile rather than the two and a half. Trouble is I can also be stubborn in that I like to keep horses to the shorter trip as long as I can, so we'll see.
"He finished like a fresh horse and doesn't look tired now, but we'll see how he comes out of it. Aintree would be perfect timing, Cheltenham is a question mark and he will tell us when we know how he comes out of this. If we went Aintree on a flat track he would definitely go three miles, I think."
It was course regular Fiercely Proud (8-1) who brought up the hat-trick in the Betfair Exchange Handicap Hurdle under Kielan Woods, with Pauling delighted not only to eclipse his achievement on this very day two years ago, but also erase the memory of last weekend where he suffered some gut-wrenching reversals.
He said: "It's great - last Saturday was one of the worst days of my racing career.
"Everything we ran didn't enjoy it, it was a disaster on bottomless ground. We're not a yard who operates on desperate ground and they are trained to be classy, quick horses, not sloggers, and last Saturday I was gutted.
"I purposely didn't run anything this week because the ground has been desperate and we just had to take the opportunities this weekend for the prize money, so I'm delighted."
Tom Lacey is toying with a trip to the Cheltenham Festival for Montregard after proving a game winner of the valuable Betfair Swinley Handicap Chase at Ascot.
A course-and-distance winner in November, he was then pulled up at Kempton before bumping into The Jukebox Kid when returned here last month.
After Ben Pauling's charge franked the form in the Reynoldstown earlier in the afternoon, the related double copped two races later, as the seven-year-old saw off the challenge of David Pipe's Gericault Roque after the last for a two-and-three-quarter-length success at odds of 100-30.
The victory now puts Montregard in line for a shot at the Kim Muir at National Hunt's showpiece meeting.
Lacey said: "I'm absolutely over the moon, delighted and to win a £100,000 race at Ascot is what you want.
"I felt he deserved a nice go at a nice pot off a low weight and it has paid off.
"They have made it a tad slower than last time but he did seem to travel really well today.
"If you can find me a few more like him it would be nice and I was just mentioning to AP [Sir Anthony McCoy, representing owner JP McManus] that we'll have to have a chat, but I was wondering if he could sneak into a Kim Muir.
"We'll enjoy today and then think about the next day soon."
