Giant strides for Jack - Henderson chaser on Festival trail

Attempting two and a half miles for the first time in the £22,500 Jelson Homes Chase at Leicester, the six-year-old came home strongly to go six lengths clear of Fundamentalist and earn quotes ranging from 10-1 to 16-1 for the Grade One chase.

Scroll down for more

Cheltenham choice: Jack the Giant wins at Leicester

Jack The Giant, the 10-11 favourite, had won both his races over hurdles this season, including the valuable Ladbroke Hurdle at Ascot.

Victory in the most valuable jumps race run at Leicester gave the gelding, who was third to My Way De Solzen in the 2007 Arkle Chase, extra options at the Festival where the two-mile five-furlong Ryanair Chase should suit better than than the two-mile Champion Chase.

Winning jockey Mick Fitzgerald said: "If you look at the figures, he can't beat Voy Por Ustedes and some of the others in the Champion Chase so the Ryanair could be the race for him. He had a wind operation in the summer and it seems to have helped."

Fitzgerald and Henderson completed a double when injuryplagued Fleet Street outclassed his eight rivals in the Groby Beginners' Chase.

The nine-year-old was third to a subsequent champion hurdler and a Gold Cup winner — Brave Inca and War Of Attrition — in the 2004 Supreme Novices' Hurdle but has managed just five runs since.

Although his jumping could have been more fluent and the opposition was modest, he galloped strongly to the line.

Henry Ponsonby, who manages Fleet Street for his syndicate of owners, said: "He has had his problems but has plenty of options now. He is entered in both the Arkle and the Ryanair over fences and we have also put him in the totesport Trophy over hurdles."

Henderson's string struggled for form at the end of 2007 with only 14 winners in the final three months, but this year his 17 runners have yielded seven winners, including Festival candidates Aigle D'or, Chomba Womba and Duc De Regniere.

Great Leighs have announced an agreement with Arena Leisure to manage the running of the much-delayed Essex all-weather track, which should be finally ready to race in mid-March. Arena own three of the country's four all-weather tracks, Lingfield, Southwell and Wolverhampton.