Nicky Henderson’s improving hurdler Lucky Place was forced to dig deep to fend off the front-running Gowel Road in the Dornan Engineering Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham on Wednesday.

Gowel Road took the six-strong field along for much of the two-mile four-and-a-half-furlong contest and he certainly wasn't going to lie down without a fight as the challengers queued up on the approach to the second last.

Nicky J. Henderson's Lucky Place, who was always closely positioned behind Gowel Road, made his challenge over the penultimate flight, while both Salver and Golden Ace moved smoothly into contention off the leading duo.

A crashing fall from Salver at the final flight meant the contest would lie between the three, but as Golden Ace's stamina began to falter, Lucky Place's began to kick in.

Gowel Road did his best to battle back under a determined Sam Twiston-Davies, but he could never quite reel in Lucky Place, who stayed on strongly up the Cheltenham hill to score by three quarters off a length at odds of 3/1 for Nicky Henderson and Nico de Boinville.

The 5/2 market leader Golden Ace finished back in third.

The Nicky Henderson-trained six-year-old, who defeated Golden Ace on his reappearance at Ascot in November, was cut to 14/1 for the Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle in March.

"He's just the most likeable young horse you could wish to have," said Henderson, who continues in fine form throughout the festive period. "He was meant to go novice chasing and he jumps very well, but I just couldn't find the opportunities to go chasing and I don't mind saying that because he should have been chasing.

"Luckily, we have some very good novice chasers doing that and he has now slotted back into the Ascot Hurdle and into this, and I think he has batted himself into the squad for the Stayers' Hurdle. He stays.

"You could go to the Cleeve, but I don't know, racing over three miles is always going to be a tough battle and does he need one on the way to the Stayers' or not? Nico and I had a quick chat afterwards and we decided he ought to have a crack at the Stayers', but do we need to test that before March as we're pretty confident he stays.

"He was ridden to take the sting out of the race today and we had to ride him like a stayer today, we needed to quicken it up and get on with it and take the sting out of the speedier horses which he did and then he put his head down and battled well.

"It's a division that is open and I think he has earned his ticket to the Stayers'. We don't have anything else for the race.

"I don't think we have to prove he stays to ourselves; we know he stays, and he is on a progressive curve.

"We think he's a three-miler, he's progressive and I might say he is better to keep growing than throw another race at him. The only point in running in the Cleeve is to prove he stays and why don't we ask that in March rather than the end of January."