The sky is the limit for Flagship Uberalles after the Paul Nicholls-trained gelding made a sparkling debut over fences in the Tarka Novices' Chase at Exeter yesterday.
A half-brother to dual Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Viking Flagship, the four-year-old jumped cleanly and fluently for Joe Tizzard before leading four out and drawing 13 lengths clear of Sursum Corda.
Flagship Uberalles, a high-class juvenile hurdler in Ireland last season, had been soundly beaten by the smart duo Zafarabad and Toto Toscato in his two outings over hurdles this term.
And Nicholls explained: "I had to run him over hurdles a couple of times just to see if he was up to living with the best before sending him chasing, as we've been schooling him over fences all season and he's hardly seen a hurdle at home.
"He's as good a young horse as we've got at home and as he's only four years old he gets a valuable weight concession from the older horses in novice chases and his target will be the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham next March."
Philip Hobbs and jockey Robert Widger were the in-form pair when notching a double courtesy of victories for Arctic Chanter, who turned the Sea Cellars International Handicap Hurdle into a procession, and Musical Fling, who took the EBF National Hunt Novices' Hurdle (Qualifier).
The Ed James-trained Selberry collected the concluding Merlin Conditional Jockeys' Novices' Handicap Hurdle by eight lengths.
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