Wales celebrated a winner in the Fulke Walwyn/Kim Muir Chase with High Chimes, trained at Llancarfan by Evan Williams and ridden by his assistant, James Tudor.

It was a first Cheltenham Festival victory for the pair, and also for owners William  and Angela Rucker, who bought the horse from point-to-point trainer Sheila Crow after he had won a couple of races in that sphere.

Tudor, 24, Britain’s reigning point-to-point champion, said: "The whole race went fairly easily, although he’s a big horse and he got in a bit tight to one or two fences. I couldn’t believe how well he was travelling as we came down the hill.

"It’s an amazing feeling - I love this place and I’ve ridden winners at Cheltenham, but to do so at the Festival is something else." Tudor rides fancied Bon Accord in tomorrow’s Christie’s Foxhunter Chase.

Williams said: "This is all down to the help I’ve been given by my assistants, Nicky Williams and James, who are both good amateur riders, but James was on the horse because he could do the weight.

"It’s teamwork and I can’t do that on my own. Last time this horse ran at Warwick [when pulled up] he was never travelling and never happy on the sticky ground, so we gave him a break and he came here a fresh horse.

"We had a winner at Ayr on Monday and before that it was a fortnight since the last one, and people start questioning what we’re doing, but I suppose we want to be known as a yard that has a winner every day, and big winners on Saturdays.

"It’s fair to say I’m somewhat emotional, particularly for James, who has been with me since he was 15. Mr and Mrs Rucker [who also own Williams’ Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup winner State Of Play] have supported me, and Mrs Rucker’s mother, Pat Tollit, was the first person to send me a horse, so it means a lot."