Nicholas Plant ripped apart his "dodgy jumper" tag at Ayr yesterday and left his trainer contemplating pitching him into a race over the demanding Grand National fences.

The nine-year-old is the first horse to be scrutinised under new Jockey Club guidelines concerning poor jumpers introduced after the death of Richard Davis.

In successive outings over fences he had unseated his rider and fallen twice, bringing the new rule into force.

Resuming over the larger obstacles after one race over timber, Nicholas Plant was the centre of attention in the Arthur Challenge Cup.

In the event he put up a sound display of jumping, staying on well after the last to deny Mr Knitwit.

"He was absolutely foot perfect - I was never in any doubt about his jumping," said trainer Jim Goldie.

"Someone from the Jockey Club phoned me up just as I was saddling the horse to let me know they were watching and wish me good luck. If he had fallen they would have come and reassessed him again but I knew there was nothing wrong with his jumping - he's just been unfortunate."

To further prove his point Goldie is considering running Nicholas Plant in the John Hughes Memorial Chase over the Grand National course at Aintree.

Lenny Lungo maintained his fine form when Birkdale landed the James Barclay Memorial Handicap Hurdle - but the trainer watched the race with mixed emotions.

He was keenly interested in the performance of his former charge Attadale, a horse dogged by bad joints.

And Attadale, now trained by Peter Monteith, performed with great credit, briefly heading the front-running Birkdale before finally going down by one and three-quarter lengths.

Welsh March underlined his promise with a comfortable six-length defeat of main market rival Rachael's Owen in the Royal Highland Fusiliers Novices' Chase.