JPR One was cut for the Arkle after winning the rescheduled Downloand The Racing App Now Lightning Novices' Chase.
The Grade 2 contest, originally due to be run on day one of the Winter Millions meeting on Friday's abandoned card having previously been staged at Doncaster, featured some early drama as 9/4 favourite Djelo was wiped out by the wayward front-runner Matata.
Matata adjusted markedly to his left at the very first fence and left Charlie Deutsch with no chance of remaining in tact on Djelo, with Matata and Daryl Jacob taking up front-running duties.
He was tracked closely from around halfway by the eventual winner in the hands of Brendan Powell, Joe Tizzard's horse jumping on with five fences to take and although he seemed to idle on the run-in after taking the last two in particularly good style, JPR One had a comfortable half-length in hand over the rallying Matata at the line.
Pembroke was seven and a half lengths further back in third with Master Chewy just last of the four horses who finished.
Tizzard said: “He was really good today. I’m not making too many excuses for Sandown, I just think he got stuck in the Sandown ground, which you can.
“We had a little walk down the straight today and I was amazed by how well it walked. It was an easy watch today, he travelled great and jumped for fun and that’s the horse we think we’ve got up against the best two-mile novices in England anyway.
“We’ve always held him in pretty high regard and he perhaps didn’t get to the levels over hurdles, but certainly over fences, if he didn’t have that little stumble at the back of the last at Cheltenham, he was going to look majorly impressive.
“I think the ground at Sandown just took its toll but today is the best we’ve seen him and he’s got a fair bit about him on the day.
“He’s got so much athleticism and Brendan has got the hang of not getting too excited – and you could tell he enjoyed that today. We think he’s a smart horse with a big future.”
Betfair make the winner a 16/1 shot (from 50/1) for the Arkle Trophy and Tizzard confirmed that Cheltenham Festival contest as his next objective.
He added: “We’ll have to take him to the Arkle now, he deserves to be there.
“He’s only a novice for one year, so I would have thought we would have a crack at it. He’s already proved he runs well around Cheltenham, so I don’t know why we wouldn’t.”
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