Paul Nicholls is considering employing blinkers on What A Friend in the Gold Cup after the superstar chased home stablemate Noland in the Grade Two Aon Chase at Newbury on Friday.

Noland bounced back to form with a nail-biting success over the odds-on favourite and jockey Tony McCoy managed to drive the winner to success as Harry Skelton and What A Friend began to close at the line.

What A Friend, owned by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, ran in snatches and spent most of the race on and off the bridle, leading Nicholls to comment: "What A Friend's run was adequate. Harry said from the minute he jumped off he was hating the ground.

"He'll be better on better ground and I might just put a pair of blinkers on him in the Gold Cup.

"You'd never know with him. If it came up good ground on the day he could run a blinder.

"You'd definitely let him take his chance and one race I'd love to run him in is the Grand National, although it might be a year too soon.

"But if it's very soft at Cheltenham, we might miss the race and find something at Aintree."

Meanwhile, it looks highly likely that Noland will head to Aintree on the back of his success and the totesport Bowl could be on the radar for the Grade One winner.

Nicholls was thrilled with the performance of his star and explained:  "I'm obviously delighted that he's won and AP was adamant that we gave him one more run after his last race.  With hindsight the Cheltenham race probably wasn't the best race to run him in, but it suited him today.

"He's finished a little bit distressed and his wind is still getting him even though he's had operations and had a tongue-tie on.

"With the problems that he's had it's been very hard to get him back but it's testament to the horse's ability and class that he's won."