Knight was absent but her assistant Bridget Nicholls said: ‘‘All the horses are running well and it seems we are going through a little purple patch so let’s hope it carries on into the weekend with the likes of Best Mate and Edredon Bleu running.’’

Lucky Bay rallied back past Shareef to lift the Castle Cary Novices’ Hurdle in the hands of Jim Culloty.

The winning gelding sports the colours also carried by top chaser Lord Noelie, who is on target for the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury next week.

Nicholls said of the winner: ‘‘He’s a nice young horse who was bought to be a chaser. However, he got stuck in the mud on his first run over hurdles at Stratford last time but loved the good fast ground here.’’

Chalmers Place, also partnered by Culloty, defied top weight to take the Hamilton Litestat Showcase Handicap Chase after moving to the head of affairs three fences out and galloping 13 lengths clear of Handyman.

Culloty would surely have made it a treble aboard Krabloonik, who appeared to have the Holbrook House Handicap Chase sewn up but effectively blundered the prize away when getting the second last fence all wrong.

The jockey did well to keep the partnership intact but lost an iron in the incident and could never quite regain his composure and handed the race on a plate to Kassala, ridden by Ollie McPhail.

Tony McCoy was also in double form as he steered Image De Marque to an effortless victory in the New Forest Commoners Novices’ Handicap Hurdle and Noble Justice, who scored over fences at the first time of asking to win the Guinness Novices’ Chase.