Many Clouds was a very tenacious winner of the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.

Oliver Sherwood’s 8-1 shot raced in mid-division for much of the way under Leighton Aspell as What A Warrior, Annacotty and Le Reve set a strong pace.

However, the seven-year-old began to make eye-catching headway turning for home and was sent into the lead on the run to the last fence by his rider.

Many Clouds then stayed on strongly in the closing stages to beat top-weight Houblon Des Obeaux (50-1) by three lengths.

Merry King (14-1) took third ahead of Monbeg Dude (25-1) but the hot 5-1 favourite Djakadam trailed home eighth of the nine finishers.

Sherwood said: “This is special, it doesn’t happen to me. I’m just chuffed to bits. He’s a very, very tough horse. I’m just delighted for the whole team.

“He kept jumping and picking out a bit more and a bit more. It’ll take him a while to get over that. The Lexus will come too soon.

“He’s still got a bit to go to get up to Gold Cup class but you’ve got to dream. He’ll certainly have an entry.”

Alan King’s Medinas (8-1) sprang a surprise in the Grade 2 Long Distance Hurdle.

The seven-year-old was sent into the lead at the last by Richard Johnson and drew clear on the run-in to trounce Cole Harden (11-4) by seven lengths.

World Hurdle hero More Of That (4-7 Fav) ran well for a long way on his seasonal debut but faded late to finish third.

King said: “We were going to retire him at the end of last season. He had a good summer and he 
ran OK at Wetherby but that was obviously a three-runner affair.

“We’re going to have to keep going for a bit longer, I think. 
I thought we’d had the best of 
him. He’s not big enough to jump a fence.

“He was going to struggle in handicaps off that mark and I thought we’d just take it one race at a time, and if he wasn’t enjoying it, we’d stop.

“We’re going to have to go for the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on December 20 now.”

Paddy Power made Medinas 
a 20-1 shot for the World Hurdle at the Festival while easing More Of That to 7-2 favourite from 9-4 for the stayers’ showpiece.

Later, Monetaire (2-1 Fav) came with a powerful run in the final furlong to land the Jim Joel Trophy Chase for Tom Scudamore and David Pipe.

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