Trenchant shows Guts at Fontwell

First-time blinkers were the recipe for Trenchant to savour the finest moment of his career in the totesport.com National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell.

The West Sussex course's big race of the year ended up providing a now customary exiting finish but lacked a class act in the mould of previous winners My Way de Solzen or Baracouda.

Star attraction was that famous chaser of lost causes Lough Derg, who was looking for a third consecutive victory but he dropped out of contention even earlier than usual and was unable to stage another remarkable recovery.

It was left to 11-4 favourite Qoak, Souffleur, Afsoun and Trenchant fighting it out by the final flight, where the former stumbled over.

Trenchant (8-1) won the Dovecote at Kempton this time last year but has endured changeable fortunes in handicap company during the winter.

But the appetite for racing seemed to have returned with the headgear and he went two lengths clear of Souffleur up a final run-in made more testing than usual by heavy ground.

"On his day he is a good horse but he is one of those who only does as much as he has to," reported jockey Robert Thornton.

King's assistant Noel Williams added: "He has shown that sort of form before, even at this level, but he never went a gallop last time at Sandown.

"We put some blinkers on at home, they sharpened him up then and he was just as sharp today.

"He has earned his place at Cheltenham now. He's in the Coral Cup, but we have a stack of runners for that. He's in the Pertemps Final too, Choc (Thornton) said he gets three miles so I wouldn't be surprised if he went down that route."