Altior Does Not Disappoint With Easy Victory In Desert Orchid

Altior did what the horse does best and kept his unbeaten record and took it to 16 now over obstacles when landing the Grade 2 Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton on Thursday.

The Nicky Henderson Trained eight year old did not come off the bridle the whole way round with all his other opponents struggling to keep up and he went on to cross the line more than 20 lengths in front of Paul Nicholls Diego Du Charmil.

The race was never in the balance for one of the greats of the sport and was used as an exercise just to keep him sharp in the run up to his defence of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the festival.

Altior went off at 1/8 in the Grade 2 contest and gave us the performance of a 1/50 and really showed on looking racegoers how special a horse he really is.

After his comeback performance of the season which was a lot tougher than this today, he was already odds on favourite to retain his title at Cheltenham at 4/5 but now he is a best price of 2/5 to take the Grade 1 on the Wednesday of the festival.

He truly is one of the all time greats of the sport and is still yet to be beaten over hurdles and fences in his career. What a horse Nicky Henderson has and what a lovely ride from Nico de Boinville.

(Credit ITV Racing)