Nicky Henderson’s Luccia opened up further Cheltenham Festival options with a straightforward victory in the Virgin Bet Daily Extra Places Novices’ Hurdle at Exeter.
Unbeaten in three starts prior to the run, the chestnut brought forward flawless bumper form and an existing Listed hurdle win gained at Newbury in November.
Not seen since after her Tolworth preparations were interrupted by an unsatisfactory scope, Luccia was nevertheless the 8-13 favourite under Nico De Boinville.
She travelled happily throughout and swept past her rivals with ease when asked, only giving connections a sole moment of doubt with a cat-leap at last.
Her 11-length Listed victory was still easily achieved, however, and she remains undefeated.
"She's good, isn't she? She's been amazing because she had two bumpers last year and then we seriously nearly lost her," Nicky Henderson told Racing TV.
"She had an extraordinary incident and she was as close to being put down as you'll see. We didn't know if she'd come back at all or if she'd be able to jump, it was a hind-end injury.
"We were a bit brave, we started her in a Listed race and she won that really well, then she had a dirty scope like one or two of them over the winter.
"This was the perfect race and the perfect timing just to get one more run into her. To be fair, it looked competitive and like it was going to be a good test but it didn't seem to phase her at all."
Of her less fluent attempt at the last flight, the trainer added: "She jumps well, we do a lot of extra schooling with her in the indoor school. Nico loves going round there on her, it just helps her technique a little bit.
"Rather than just hurdling, she learns to jump properly and she does jump well, she was just untidy at the last but otherwise she was very quick and economical all the way round. I've got to say I was impressed."
The Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle was always the intended target for Luccia, but the triumph has brought the Supreme Novices' Hurdle into the equation come March.
"I'd say the mares', personally," said Henderson.
To the suggestion that she is good enough for the Supreme, he then added: "That's what my jockey said – we've got four weeks to discuss it."
Henderson and De Boinville enjoyed a treble on the card with The Carpenter (7-4) on the mark in the Virgin Bet British Stallion Studs EBF 'National Hunt' Novices' Hurdle, while Walking On Air (15-8 favourite) proved too good in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle.
Venetia Williams' Pink Legend returned to winning ways to land the Listed Virgin Bet Best Odds Daily Mares' Chase under Charlie Deutsch.
The nine-year-old was a 4-1 chance for the contest and made all of the running over the three-mile trip, her main pursuer being Jeremy Scott's 11-10 favourite Kissesforkatie.
Four from home the two locked horns and it was Pink Legend that pulled away and stayed on well to claim a five-length victory ahead of Scott's mare, with the Williams-trained stablemate Kapga De Lily a further half-length behind.
"I'm really delighted, obviously we wanted to get a bit of black type for Kapga De Lily," said Williams.
"Pink Legend can sometimes be a bit of a law unto herself. Frank Mahon, who owns her, has always been assertive about the ground and said on good ground she likes it.
"He's absolutely right and Charlie said as soon as she jumped off she was straight into the bridle, she jumped the first and she was off.
"It's her first time back over three miles for a while, she enjoyed the tempo and everybody was very happy to have somebody to make the running. It was great."
