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.
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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