Tom George has praised the prize money on offer at Ludlow after Java Point landed the valuable Forbra Gold Cup at the track on Thursday.

The seven-year-old was a two-and-three-quarter-length winner, prevailing over Henry Daly’s Head To The Stars – who was seeking a third win in the race – as the 6-4 favourite under jockey Jonathan Burke.

Despite looking beaten when turning into the home straight, the extended trip seemed to be to his liking and he stayed on to claim the £11,218 prize for his delighted connections.

“He seems to have improved with a step up in trip, it was soft enough for him but he’s a good jumper and hopefully he’s progressive,” said George.

The success was the horse’s second at the course and justified George’s decision to head there instead of contesting a novice handicap chase at Newbury on Saturday.

“You can’t fault what Ludlow do, it’s a good advertisement for a small track,” he said.

“He was entered at Newbury and it was either that or the race yesterday (Thursday), we decided to go to Ludlow as the race was worth double the amount and that seems to be happening quite regularly.

“Ludlow deserve to be applauded for the prize-money they keep putting on, we need to be supporting them and that’s why we always have a lot of runners there.”