Paul Nicholls did not disguise his delight at executing the odds-on defeat of a bright prospect he used to train. The 14-time champion jumps trainer saw 18 horses move from his Ditcheat stable, including several serious young talents with potentially major careers ahead of them.

Among them were the Gordon and Su Hall-owned Cheltenham Festival runner-up Ginny’s Destiny and the exciting pair Old Park Star and Act Of Innocence, who both started hurdling this season. They all joined rival Nicky Henderson.

Nicholls admitted the loss of so many horses hit him hard. In an interview with the Racing Post in December he said, in the case of the Hall horses: “I was never told why the horses were going, just that they weren’t coming back.”

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He explained that he had not run them over hurdles last season because he was thinking of the future of the horses as they needed more time to mature.

“The sad thing is I did give them time but other people are reaping the benefits,” he said. “Old Park Star was a good example of that. It’s a shame, he should be novice hurdling for me, and so should Act Of Innocence.”

He added: “It was bloody hard losing those horses and it’s hard now watching them win.”

Old Park Star has won both starts in novice hurdles while Act Of Innocence won first time out and was fully expected to double his score at Newbury on Monday.

He went off at odds of 2-7 for the Introductory Hurdle and looked all set to score as he led the field at the second last.

However Minella Yoga, a three-year-old bought for £360,000 by Nicholls making his British debut, finished strongest to overtake the favourite on the run-in and score by three quarters of a length.

“You can imagine I loved that,” said Nicholls. “I loved that one.”

Minella Yoga, who could be a Triumph Hurdle prospect, was receiving 20lb from the two years older Act Of Innocence in allowances.

Nicholls said: "He's a very nice youngster and I obviously felt I had half a chance by running him against Act Of Innocence and I couldn't have had a better result to be honest.

"He's still a bit backwards and green and he will have learned plenty today. I thought we had a nice weight which helped us and he's a three-year-old but with the size of him, he's hardly one of those.

"He's one of the nicest youngsters we have without a shadow of a doubt and he's going to be better on slower ground as I was a bit nervous about the ground today. He's got a lot of class."

"I haven't really thought of a plan beyond today. Trials day is around three weeks away and we could look at that definitely to see where we stand. I would imagine he will take the race today really well but you do have to mind them a little bit."