Captain Conan poised to go the distance at Cheltenham Festival as Henderson targets Jewson Chase over Arkle Impressive was not an adjective you could apply to the six-year-old on this occasion. "He did well to win it in the end," Henderson said. And he answered one question, because he wasn't going to win it at two miles. He's a big gross horse and he got a bit tired. He's been hanging around all through January. We wanted to run him in the Dipper [on New Year's Day], which was abandoned and then the rerun race was called off when we couldn't get four runners. One day I think he'll go three miles. However, Eastlake responded well to a positive ride to win the Betfred "Home of Goals Galore" Handicap Chase for JP McManus despite being almost too cautious at his fences. "When AP [McCoy] was at Catterick for a couple of winners yesterday, Richie was down on the schooling ground for me," Jonjo O'Neill said of one of his main back-room boys. I wasn't thinking about Cheltenham for this horse before but I might now. At Ffos Las, the career of amateur rider Nico de Boinville, who rides Long Run and Sprinter Sacre in all their homework, took another positive step forward when Carruthers, the former Hennessy winner, won the gruelling William Hill West Wales National over 3½ miles. Like all jockeys in his position, riding good horses at home is one thing, riding them on the racecourse is what he is after. Turning in it was between Carruthers and Cannington Brook who, like Third Intention, is trained by Colin Tizzard, whose greatest half-hour this probably was not. In the end it was De Boinville's 7lb claim that made all the difference as he ground it out to win by 2½ lengths. Carruthers and de Boinville are now unbeaten in two starts together at the Welsh track. "If you keep bashing on the door," De Boinville said, "someone will open it in the end. To be honest, I wasn't sure if he'd get home because we'd gone a good gallop but when he heard the other horse coming he pulled out more. He's a horse with real heart and it's just a thrill.