Banbury trainer Paul Webber can start planning a route to Cheltenham with Sarando after he made himself eligible for the £60,000 bonus for winning a chase at Prestbury Park with victory at Plumpton yesterday.

Heavy overnight rain left the East Sussex track particularly soggy, but it played to the strengths of 6-1 shot Sarando in the novices’ chase over two and a half miles.

Making most of the running under Stanford in the Vale jockey Will Kennedy, the six-year-old gelding slammed Ranjobaie by 12 lengths.

“We’re going to have to look at the bonus and we will probably go for the old Jewson Novices’ Handicap,” said Mollington handler Webber.

“He’ll need another run somewhere, whether he’s good enough for maybe the Scilly Isles at Sandown (on February 5) we’ll have to see.”