Mister Banjo has returned home to Paul Nicholls`s Ditcheat stable this morning none the worse for his fall at the second-last fence in the Prix Renaud du Vivier at Auteuil yesterday.
The four-year-old was bought out of the Nicky Henderson stable by John Hales for 240,000 guineas at Doncaster in May, and was making his seasonal bow in the French test.
Nicholls said: 'He is fine, he ran a great race and he had every chance of winning but you would be brave to say he would have won.
'But I was very happy with him, he jumped super over those French type hurdles and was just a bit unlucky - he did not mind the very heavy ground and it was just unfortunate the way it ended.'
Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Nicholls is going to take things steadily with Mister Banjo and went on: 'John (Hales) and I had a chat this morning and we thought we would quite like to go for the Bishops Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham at the end of January.
'And then perhaps the Stayers` Hurdle (at the Cheltenham Festival), but those are just pencilled in at the moment - what we don`t want to do is to do too much with him this year.'
He added: 'It is hard for four-year-olds and we are very much looking to novice chasing him at this time next season so we don`t want to be too hard on him - other than those possibilities we do not have anything concrete at the moment.'
Reflecting on the trip to France, he continued: 'He went over by ferry on Friday and was back at 9am today, it is an easy thing to do to go over there really.
'I was pleased with the way he acquitted himself in that sort of company and it makes you wonder whether it is worth doing it again at some stage, it was easy to get it organised and there is big prize money out there.'
