ROYAL Vacation ran out an easy winner of the Timeform Novices' Handicap Chase.

In a race full of incident and fallers, the Colin Tizzard-trained Grade One winner stamped his class on proceedings under Paddy Brennan.

Sent off at 12-1, he was left in front coming down the hill when Mercian Prince fell, bringing down Uncle Danny when both were still going well.

Singlefarmpayment was another casualty, as was More Buck's but whether he should have been pulled up beforehand having seemingly taken the wrong track will be debated.

Royal Vacation stayed on strongly up the hill to beat Potters Legend by eight lengths, with Ibis Du Rheu third.

Champers On Ice, heavily backed into joint-favouritism before the off, was bitterly disappointing.

"Watching it, there was an awful lot going on but Paddy was in the right position all the time," said Tizzard, whose seven-year-old had been gifted the Kauto Star Novices' Chase at Kempton over Christmas when Might Bite crashed out at the last.

"His jumping has been pretty good since day one. We got lucky last time, but he deserved to run here and he needed practice here.

"We'll be governed by what the handicapper does as to what race he runs in."

He added: "If he keeps going up that way you'd have to think he's an RSA horse.

"Paddy got off and said he's very gutsy and that he's an excellent jumper and a thorough stayer.

"We've raced him plenty, Wetherby, Lingfield, and that's been the making of him, going racing.

"Coming back in trip was a little bit of a concern, but he won a two-mile hurdle and ran in the Champion Bumper.

"He's going to be a proper stayer, he will stay four miles. We looked at this and thought two-five here is a similar test to three at Cheltenham."

Brennan said: "I was really impressed with him today, I always knew he was a bit short of the best and sometimes you don't give horses enough credit but he'll win a lot of races because he's all guts and determination.

"The better the ground the better he'll be, he's exciting for the rest of the season.

"He felt an RSA horse to me, he'll be up to 150 now."