Five days after Seven Barrows stablemate Lulamba strengthened his position at the head of the Triumph Hurdle market with a stylish win at Ascot, the most expensive horse ever sold at public auction to go jumping, was sent off the 8/15 favourite for the Pertemps Network Maiden Hurdle under Nico de Boinville and got the job done.

However, it wasn’t completely straightforward for the €1.4 million purchase, who races in the silks of Lady Bamford, and there was a brief moment when it looked like 50/1 shot Wolf Moon might make it interesting approaching the last.

German Group 1 Flat winner Palladium ultimately had enough in reserve and, after an adequate jump at the final flight, he was kept up to his work to beat Ben Pauling’s outsider by a couple of lengths, with 3/1 chance Jack Hyde a further eight and a half lengths back in third.

Paddy Power and Betfair reacted by easing the winner out to 16/1 (from 12/1) for the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham. Sky Bet, meanwhile, left him unchanged at 14/1.

Henderson said: “There’s obviously a certain amount of relief. You couldn’t find a nicer colt in the world, he has got such a good temperament.

“He’s got a great attitude to life and that makes a big different. So we always said let’s have a look at him and see, as he’s basically going to go Flat racing. But his attitude to this is so good and he enjoyed his jumping.

“He enjoyed that today. He’s just a really likeable colt. It’s different, he’s the only one I’ve got in the place (yard) and I was always conscious that they’d want quite a bit more work than an ordinary gelding. So I was just a little bit nervous that he mightn’t be 100% as we’d given him a nice break after he came back.

“Nico said there was an awful lot of improvement to come and I was delighted with him, his jumping was positive and I thought he was great.

“I think he wants to get his toe in the ground to a degree. I don’t think he’d want rattling ground but I don’t think he’d like it heavy either. We’ll have to think about it when the summer comes around and where he goes Flat racing.”

Asked if the Triumph was still at the forefront of connections’ minds, Henderson was pretty unequivocal, with another run at Kempton the likely plan before a trip to Cheltenham.

“Having got this far, we might as well look at it (Triumph),” Henderson said on Racing TV.

“Our first take of that is that another run would do him good in which case that almost certainly means the Adonis at Kempton – that would be the obvious place to go.

“We’re keeping all options open (with Sky Bet Supreme-entered Lulamba and Palladium), they’re run on two different courses as well.

“We’d done very little galloping with him which is why we were nervous. We’d done lots of schooling and very little galloping and he had a good blow and we both think there’s a lot of improvement to come which is nice. His jumping was slick, he’ll have learned a hell of a lot, and he enjoyed it too.”

More from Sporting Life

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.