GRAND National-winning Wye Valley trainer Venetia Williams is poised for another tilt at the Cheltenham Gold Cup with stable star L'Homme Presse, after a close second in Saturday's £120,000 Betfair Cotswold Chase on the same track.

Irish raider Spillane’s Tower took the victory from the Charlie Deutsch-saddled 11-year-old by just 3/4L, who won the race in 2025 and pushed the winner all the way.

James Mangan's 11/4 winner squeezed past before the last to take the £71,187 first prize, with 4/1 shot L'Homme Presse taking £26,712 for second by 4 1/4L from favourite Grey Dawning in third.

Venetia Williams said: “If you go back to the King George last season (2024), we were ahead of Spillane’s Tower off levels but were giving him 6lb today...

“He’s a fantastic horse and has never been the easiest to train. I didn’t stop yelling for him all the way up the run-in and I knew if L’Homme Presse was neck-and-neck up the run-in he would have every chance. But in the end the margin remained the same all the way.

“They put considerable distance back to the third and I think we’ve got to come back in March. There is the best part of two months between now and then so we will discuss things with the owners and make a plan.”

It was a second successive second for the Ross-on-Wye horse, who finished runner-up in the £100,000 Turners Handicap Chase on the same course in December in his first race for nine months after an operation.

The horse placed fourth in the 2024 Gold Cup after being bumped and injured at the second last when contesting the lead, and took third in the 2024 King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day 2024, after returning at the end of that year.