And it was certainly a day to remember for the west as six of the day’s winners are trained in the West Country.

Balder Success plotted his path to Cheltenham and the Ryanair Chase by taking victory in the Grade 1 Betfair Ascot Chase, the 2m5f race proving an ideal distance for the Alan King-trained victor.

West Berkshire trainer Nicky Henderson’s Ma Filleule was the only runner who could live with King’s good looking seven-year-old, but even she could not land a blow, as he galloped up the straight to a commanding win.

“He was just out of his comfort zone when running over two miles,” said King. “The sharp two milers were just too quick for him. This longer trip is ideal and, though I need to talk to the owners, the Ryanair will be the plan.” Meanwhiler, Barry Geraghty gave Carole’s Destrider a superb ride to take the three-mile Weatherbys Hamilton Chase.

The horse has a couple of entries at Cheltenham and trainer Neil Mulholland says he wants to chat further with Geraghty before committing to any of the options.

However, the winners of the first and second races on Saturday – Paul Nicholls’s Arpege D’Alene and the David Pipe-trained Ainsi Fideles – are both likely to sidestep Cheltenham for options at Aintree.

The lightly raced Arpege D’Alene may have only one more run this season, with a chasing campaign in mind in the autumn.

Pipe and jockey Tom Scudamore later doubled up with Unique De Cotte, the French-bred son of Voix Du Nord, owned by JP McManus.

“I will chat with JP about plans,” said Pipe. “The horse needs to go up in the handicap to get into something such as the Coral Cup at Cheltenham Festival. But we’ll be looking for a nice handicap now, and he will go chasing in future.” The penultimate race went to Colin Tizzard’s Thistlecrack, who was skipped clear after the last in the Racing UK Novices Hurdle, showing off a fine turn of foot for his excited owners John and Heather Snook.

“We’ve had to be patient with him, but he looked a machine,” said Heather. “We owned his older brother, who was very good, and then bought Thistlecrack – we also own his younger brother West Approach who ran in the last. He won on his debut, and ran a good race to finish fourth.” The winner of the final race, the Neptune Investment Management NH Flat race, could not have been more impressive.

Wait For Me, a son of Saint Des Saints, was always prominent and jockey James West kicked clear off the home turn to win by an easy five lengths.

“We won’t think about Cheltenham and the Champion Bumper yet,” said owner Andrew Cohen. “We bought him as a foal and he has run in two schooling bumpers in Ireland. He is a lovely young horse and we are in no rush to make plans – it all starts here.” It brought an end to an exciting day of racing that saw more than 30,000 punters take advantage of Ascot’s free entry to the Grandstand Enclosure.

The Premier Enclosure was also sold out and hoardes of racegoers stayed behind long after the final race to listen to a Cheltenham Festival preview with an expert panel of Paul Nicholls, Aidan Coleman and Betfair’s Barry Orr.

Guy Henderson, Chief Executive at Ascot, said: “We’ll definitely continue to have a free raceday every year. It’s important to interact with your customers, and it was a great day.” l HUGE CROWDS FLOCK TO ASCOT: SEE P8–9.