Mark Bradstock's Letcombe Bassett yard have the Gold Cup on their minds after stable star Carruthers jumped his four rivals ragged in the hands of Mattie Batchelor to score an impressive victory at Newbury on Tuesday.

The perennial front-runner, who was heavily-backed into 5-4 favouritism before the off, was taken on for the lead by Niche Market, but never missed a beat at his fences.

The front pair set a decent pace, forcing errors out of Roll Along and Massini’s Maguire, who both struggled to cope with the examination of their jumping.

Carruthers started to assert down the home straight and despite Ruby Walsh doing his best to drive Big Fella Thanks into contention, the winner soared over the last to record an easy victory.

Carruthers was fancied for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury last month, but scoped badly and was forced to miss the £200,000 showpiece event.

But attentions may now turn to the big race at Cheltenham in March.

Bradstock said of the impressive victory: “That was a great performance. It was a pity that he had to miss the Hennessy here due to a bad scope..

“Quite where we go from here I don’t know, but he will have an entry in the Gold Cup. But taking on the likes of Kauto Star and Denman is, of course, another matter enitrely.”