Arkle remains on Vista agenda

Bookmakers were largely unmoved after Irish Independent Arkle Trophy hopeful Buena Vista made it two wins from as many starts over fences at Hereford on Thursday.

The David Pipe-trained six-year-old was sent off the well supported 8-15 favourite for the two-mile Hereford Truck Show Novices’ Chase, but had to dig reasonably deep to preserve his unbeaten status.

Third in last year’s Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Tony McCoy’s mount jumped to the front at the third-last fence, although his rider was soon noticeably lower in the saddle than Sam Thomas, who was sitting motionless on Chief Yeoman in his slipstream.

The latter made a slight mistake at the penultimate obstacle, however, and then appeared to stumble at a critical point as the duelling pair neared the final fence.

Buena Vista jumped it well and then responded to a characteristic McCoy drive to hold off the rallying 2-1 chance by the narrowest of margins, although he was giving the runner-up 10lb.

Pipe said: 'When you are odds-on in a race like that you haven’t really got much to gain but experience and that’s what we’ve come here for.

'AP (McCoy) said he reached for one early, but he was very good after that and it was a completely different track to what it was at Exeter last time.

'I suppose we’re heading down the Arkle route, but we’ll wait and see how he comes out of this before deciding whether he has another run before Cheltenham,' he told At The Races.