It will be the verdict of the official handicapper that determines plans for Imperial Commander, the deeply impressive winner of the Paddy Power Gold Cup. Nigel Twiston-Davies, his trainer, favours a return to Cheltenham next month for the equivalent race sponsored by Boylesports but a harsh rise in the weights could yet see him run under a penalty in the Hennessy Gold Cup instead.

“We'd like to bring him back here, because he's obviously very good around Cheltenham,” Twiston-Davies said yesterday. “We'll know on Tuesday what the handicapper has done to him and, as he won by less than three lengths, we hope he won't be too severe.”

Twiston-Davies, who has only twice run Imperial Commander away from his beloved Cheltenham, was relieved when the horse trotted up sound yesterday. “He had some growing pains in his joints which made us stop with him halfway through last season,” he explained. “But he's still improving and we have to think of all the big races now.”

Paddy Brennan exploited Imperial Commander's stamina and slick jumping, going to the front a mile from home in a hotly competitive race. He never looked like being caught and Brennan called him “the best chaser I've ridden”. He added: “Time may prove he was thrown in at the weights but he's done the job very well.”

One man not forgotten amid the celebrating was Tony Evans, who retained the ride on Imperial Commander even when usurped by Brennan as stable jockey last season. Evans has now retired after suffering arm injuries in a car crash but he was present on Saturday in the winner's enclosure. “They can probably thank me,” he said wryly. “He wouldn't be so well handicapped if they'd had someone decent on him before.”

As Twiston-Davies's bandwagon rolled on - away from Cheltenham, he won the Southern National at Fontwell yesterday - certain notable stables are not in such heady form. David Pipe, whose father Martin regularly farmed a handful of prizes at this meeting, emerged from a bleak weekend smiling when Pablo Du Charmil won a valuable two-mile chase yesterday.

Pipe, who scratched the Greatwood Hurdle favourite, Ashkazar, overnight, admitted that “relief” was the prominent emotion. He had endured a number of below-par runs capped by the forlorn return of the Grand National winner, Comply Or Die, who was pulled up on Saturday. “Timmy [Murphy] thought he was taking the micky and we may put blinkers back on, but I still thought he would run a lot better than that,” Pipe said.

Joe Lively, a wide-margin winner of that race, will be aimed at the Grand National this season by his trainer, Colin Tizzard. His next stop could be the Welsh National at Chepstow after Christmas.