CHRIS MAUDE yesterday fired a Champion Hurdle warning to the likes of Collier Bay, Large Action and Space Trucker. Make A Stand's odds for next month's Cheltenham showpiece have been cut from 33 to 1 in to 10 to 1 after his all-the-way nine-length victory in the £100,000 Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury on Saturday.

Trainer Martin Pipe has deferred a decision on the gelding's Festival target but winning jockey Maude is convinced the six-year-old is worth a crack at the championship.

"People keep asking me if it was Champion Hurdle form and I reckon it has got to be," he said. "He trounced a very good, competitive field very comfortably and was very impressive.

"The ground was a little bit dead for him but he still won very easily. We set off quite fasts but I wasn't worried I won on him over two miles and three furlongs at Stratford and I knew he would keep going.

But Maude, a freelance who has ridden 18 winners for Pipe this term, is less confident of keeping the ride at Cheltenham on March 11th. "I don't know if I will be on him. I would think Mr McCoy would be very happy to ride him!" he said.

No hurdler has taken the Newbury race, sponsored by Schweppes until 1986, and gone on to land the Champion Hurdle since Persian War lifted both prizes in 1968. But the last four Tote winners have each run with distinction at Cheltenham.

Squire Silk and Mysilv finished fifth behind Collier Bay and Alderbrook respectively in the last two seasons and King Credo was fourth to Granville Again in 1993. And in 1994 Large Action was third in the Champion, beaten only by Flakey Dove and Oh So Risky who had filled the places behind him at Newbury.

Ladbrokes cut Make A Stand's Cheltenham odds from 33 to 1 in to 10 to 1 and spokesman Ian Wassell rates the gelding a major contender.

"Make A Stand won in such convincing style against a field of top-class handicappers that he must be rated a serious Champion Hurdle candidate."