Venetia Williams is not getting carried away with Otago Trail just yet as he takes the next step up the ladder in the Start Your RacingUK Free Trial Now Novices' Chase at Haydock on Saturday.
A hugely impressive winner at Chepstow a fortnight ago, the handicapper raised him by 13lb and effectively ruled him out of running in such races for the foreseeable future.
A field of six go to post for the Grade Two, registered as the Altcar Novices' Chase, which in recent years has thrown up some top-class winners such as Diamond Harry, My Way De Solzen and Taquin Du Seuil, while last year it went to Wakanda who has emerged as a star of the northern scene this season.
"That was only a handicap at Chepstow and now he is stepping into a very hot Grade Two. He's obviously got a lot more on his plate, but he was impressive," said Williams.
"The handicapper chose to put him up by 13lb and was basically trying to entice us to run in this. It's very competitive, you couldn't rule anything out."
Williams also runs Zamdy Man, who two years ago won the Rossington Main Novices' Hurdle on this card but has been lightly raced ever since. He was a beaten odds-on favourite on his chasing debut behind Regal Encore.
"Zamdy Man has not been the easiest to train which has been a shame because on his day he's a good horse," said Williams.
"He's obviously going in at the deep end a bit, but as he's run well at Haydock a few times we thought he may as well run where he enjoys it."
Bristol De Mai is prominent in the ante-post betting for the JLT Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival so will need to go close to keep those dreams alive.
Nigel Twiston-Davies' five-year-old has stepped up in trip having proved no match for Ar Mad and Garde La Victoire over two miles but he proved his stamina last time out.
"He's getting weight off Venetia's horse which is a help as he won nicely at Chepstow the other day," said Twiston-Davies.
"Our horse loves the ground, he revels in it. He's a good jumper, he gets the trip and we're really looking forward to running him."
Johnny Farrelly's Amore Alato was an unfortunate loser at Ascot last time out when having jumped well, he got in tight to the last and came down, allowing Le Mercurey to take advantage.
"He came out of the Ascot race fine and this has always been the plan since. I hope he'll run well and I think he should handle the ground, you just never know until they run on it but he's by Winged Love and they tend to," said Farrelly.
"We've schooled him on heavier ground and it didn't seem to bother him. It will be a big eye-opener anyway. Everything went well at Ascot, bar the last. It was unfortunate, but it was just a novicey mistake.
"Harry (Skelton) definitely did the right thing in asking him to keep going forward as Le Mercurey was catching him, if he'd slowed up and tried to fiddle it he may have got beat and then everyone would be saying 'why didn't you ask him'. That happens in horse racing, they are never over the line until they've crossed it.
"I'm happy with him going there, his bloods are right and I hope he'll run well."