Cheltenham blow for Henderson as Zaynar well beaten at Kelso

NICKY Henderson suffered a second Champion Hurdle blow as his leading light Zaynar was turned over as the 1-14 favourite in the Victor Chandler Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso.

Just 24 hours after last year's third Binocular was ruled out by a muscle problem, Zaynar was displaced as the ante-post favourite following his length defeat by the enormous Quwetwo.

Henderson and his stable jockey Barry Geraghty made the long trip from Lambourn for what should have been a simple schooling session rather than a bruising defeat by a potential chasing star of the future.

A severe overnight frost left conditions glue-like and Geraghty was giving out distress signals well before he squared up to Howard Johnson's Quwetwo at the penultimate flight.

Try as he might, Zaynar could not get on terms and the diminutive grey was left to suffer his first defeat over timber.

William Hill doubled his odds for the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle – for which he will have cheekpieces reapplied – and lengthened him out to 8-1 while Coral go 6-1 from 7-2. Henderson said: "If the meeting had been off after the inspection I was going to go straight to Cheltenham, so it is a good job it was on as he has had a right good blow in ground that wasn't for him.

"This doesn't change anything and we'll stick to the original plan. Barry said he was even taking a blow down the back and this isn't 16 March.

"Kelso have done a great job getting this on and I have no regrets about coming."

Owner Graham Wylie added of the winner: "We planned to go steady and then pick the pace up and see what happens.

"He has been ready to go since December and has been entered ten times but the meetings have been abandoned. We took him out of the Arkle last week and we will wait until next season to send him novice chasing."

Not surprisingly Scottish winners dominated the afternoon and Bob's Dream became the third to strike after Mr Preacher Man and Bishops Heir had done the business when lasting home in the William Hill Opens In Kelso Today Handicap Hurdle.

Willie Amos' 5-2 favourite travelled menacingly throughout and despite cantering clear, he became leg-weary on the stamina-sapping run to the line but clung on by two lengths from Sotovik.

Double Default was robbed in the Middlemiss Golden Wedding Beginners' Chase, with Mr Preacher Man reeling in Nicky Richards' front-runner in the dying strides.