Racing:Little Josh, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies and ridden by Sam Twiston-Davies won the Paddy Power Gold Cup Chase at Cheltenham. The recent Carlisle dead-heater set off in positive fashion and he never saw another rival as he jumped accurately from fence to fence.
As the field toiled in behind, the eight year old was enjoying himself up front and never looked like being pegged back and strode on to victory by two and three quarter lengths at 20-1.
Favourite Long Run emerged from the pack to throw down a challenge but an error two out knocked the stuffing out of him and he was mugged for second close home by Dancing Tornado.
Long Run's stablemate Mad Max came home in fourth.
"He was superb - I'm so proud of him," Nigel Twiston-Davies said afterwards.
Little Josh had dead-heated with Weird Al on his seasonal reappearance at Carlisle and that rival is now likely to have plenty of supporters in the Hennessy Gold Cup. Second-favourite Great Endeavour was prominent but dropped away from the third-last, while Tchico Polos took a crashing fall.
"He was class, he did everything spot-on," said Sam Twiston-Davies. "You can trust him with your life and he'll try his best for you. Hopefully he'll progress from here."
Henderson said of his pair: "Both ran great races. I think it's possible that Long Run might find it easier on a flat track and at the moment we won't change our plans and the King George will be the next stop for him.
"That was a cut and thrust - a proper handicap chase - and the one thing you need to do at Kempton is stay, which this horse does.
"I think Mad Max probably wants better ground and he just got tired in the ground. At the moment I do not have a plan for him.
Waley-Cohen added of Long Run: "I don't have any excuses as, for the most part, he jumped well."