WITH his main jockey Ruby Walsh laid up injured, trainer Paul Nicholls has been using the services of Noel Fehily on a regular basis.

And the pair teamed up again to good effect at Hereford last Thursday with Robinson Collonges in the twomile- five-and-a-half furlongs novice chase.

Sent off the 1/10 favourite to make amends for a fall last time out at Wincanton, the Nicholls ‘hotpot’ won in the style of a genuine good horse by 46 lengths from the Anne Price-trained and Lee S t e p h e n s - r i d d e n Brimley in second place.

The race was sponsored by Hereford United and caretaker boss Jamie Pitman was there with a number of his players to congratulate winning owners Graham and Jan Calder.

The French influence at the track continued when Monsieur Cadou, who had been a strong whisper throughout the morning was backed from early 8/1 down to 11/4 favourite and duly obliged in the novice handicap hurdle.

Ridden by Paddy Brennan for Stroud trainer Tom George, Monsieur Cadou led between the final two hurdles and stretched clear to win by threeand- a-half lengths.

The meeting opened with a bang when the opening juvenile hurdle race went to the ex- French 100/1 outsider Tiptronic owned and trained by Cross Ash permit-holder Reg Brown and ridden by Donal Fahy.

Brown, who has long been a regular at the track and had notable successes in the past with multiple winners Ruststone and Drakestone, explained that the success of the French import was not a total surprise.

“Apart from two horses at home, he’s never seen another horse and this was the first time he’d set eyes on a racecourse,"

he said.

"A couple of my owners took 150/1 and I had a few pounds on at 100/1."

The three-year-old Tiptronic was always close to the leaders in the extended two-mile event and, under Fahy, he regained the lead in the shadow of the post to win by a nose from runner-up Harry Hunt.

The final race of the day saw the Nicky Henderson-trained Semi Colon justifying odds-on favouritism in the Bumper under a positive ride from Andrew Tinkler, scoring by seven lengths from Varakala and the Michael Scudamore locally trained Hazy Dawn back in third place.

All three should score in the future in similar events.