Jenny Pitman gained some compensation for the loss of Mentmore Towers at Cheltenham on Friday when Vitaman just outpointed Line of Conquest for the Ettington Handicap Hurdle at Warwick yesterday.

And her assistant trainer and husband David Stait called for Cheltenham to have a look at the second-last downhill hurdle where Mentmore Towers broke a shoulder and had to be put down after falling.

"We've lost five horses at the downhill hurdle in the past 10 years and Cheltenham really should have a look at resiting the flight," argued Stait.

"At the Festival when the marquees are down there the horses approach it and because of the angle of the hurdle it appears to them that they are jumping into the marquees as they cannot see the other side.

"They altered the fence there and they should do something about the hurdle as that's why people don't like running novices there.

"We have made our best start to a season for some time but to lose a horse like Mentmore Towers has really taken the edge off it."

However, Cheltenham's clerk of the course Philip Arkwright has defended the siting of the track's hurdles.

Arkwright expressed himself "perfectly happy" with the current siting of the second-last. "The siting of hurdles at Cheltenham and at other undulating courses is obviously quite a challenge,", he said. "There tends to be a best possible site and there tends to be degrees of marginally less good sites.

"We are further restricted these days by the necessity of allowing for the bypassing of obstacles but I am perfectly happy that the hurdles are in the best possible position.

"At the Festival we have dispensation not to bypass - horses are diverted to the remaining part of the flight.

"I am perfectly happy that the hurdles are sited as well as it is possible to site them given the undulating ground at Cheltenham and the restrictions imposed on one by bypassing."

Vitaman had disappointed when pulled up at Uttoxeter last time but Stait explained: "The ground was bottomless there and he couldn't go a year in it as he cannot handle the soft.

"I was a bit worried today as it was plenty sticky enough here as he must have good ground like he had at Chepstow when he first time out this season."

Rod Farrant always had Vitaman up with the pace and the eight-year-old kept on strongly from two out to repel Line of Conquest by a neck.

Even Flow, a stablemate of Rough Quest, defied an absence of 775 days from racecourse action to beat Nickle Joe by three lengths in the Stoneleigh Handicap Chase.

Of Rough Quest, winner of the 1996 Grand National who came back from a lay-off to chase home the Grey Monk at Haydock on Saturday, Casey said: "He's come out of the race very well.

The following horses are visored for the first time today: Musselburgh - 2.50, Uk Hygiene; 2.50, Wild Brook. The following horses are blinkered for the first time: Folkestone - 3.00, One More Man.