NICKY Henderson has warned Gold Cup hope Santini has more left up his sleeve.
His Cotswold Chase winner is joint favourite for the Festival feature and the Seven Barrows handler thinks the best could still be to come.
Speaking at a Cheltenham media morning, Henderson said: He was very good in the Cotswold and I think that was a proper, proper race.
Nigel [Twiston-Davies] thought Bristol De Mai ran up to his best in second and the ground was probably more in their favour than ours.
But Santini did it very well and Id have thought there would be lots of improvement from that run.
His star has come a long way from his sluggish reappearance at Sandown early in the season where he narrowly edged past the 19lbs inferior Now McGinty at odds of 1-3.
He failed to kick on from his 2019 RSA second to Topofthegame there, and its his previous Festival effort that has Henderson hopeful of going one better this time.
He added: We know he likes Cheltenham, hes already run two crackers there.
His RSA effort last season was fantastic because wed had a dreadful time with him before that.
What he did in the RSA last year was amazing. Hed had his problems with his foot and then we had to miss the Reynoldstown because of his flu vaccination.
Weve got to avoid all those snakes and ladders this year but it looks like we have.
He stays and he jumps well as we know now, but the better the ground the better hell be.
He had a tough enough run at Cheltenham but hes over that now and we wont have to take him anywhere beforehand.
With still only nine runs under rules to his name, Santini has been a slow burner for the Seven Barrows supremo, but Henderson is now starting to reap the rewards.
Henderson explained: “He was exactly the opposite to Altior coming through. From day one with Altior you knew he was a rocket.
“With Santini the first year he was here we knew he wasnt a bumper horse and he went down to Polly Grundys where he just hunted and had a point-to-point.
“Now you need a lot of work with him. The more you can get into him the better he is as hes not an Altior at home but he thoroughly enjoys it and is very enthusiastic.
“Hes fresh and hes well, weve just started work with him again and he did some schooling on Saturday.”
