The seven-year-old opened up a host of new possibilities for trainer David Pipe and owner David Johnson after winning over three miles for the first time at Cheltenham on New Year's Day.
It was Ashkazar's first win in four runs and after stepping up without any problems he is to be entered in the stayers' championship at the Festival.
"Timmy (Murphy) gave him a great ride, I thought the rest went off too fast and fell into our hands. It showed he stays three miles and opens a few more options for us now," Johnson said.
"Maybe the Pertemps Final, or even the World Hurdle as something has to be placed behind Big Buck's. If we go for the Pertemps we're going to have 12st on our backs and you'd have a pretty well-handicapped horse in the race somewhere, so the Pertemps probably wouldn't be on the agenda.
"In the World Hurdle, you're probably all running for second place and I hope Andy (Stewart, owner of Big Buck's) wins it for the third time. There's still places though and Martin (Pipe) told me once never to be scared of one horse."
Ashkazar was one of the outsiders when he won at Cheltenham but Johnson admits he was a little more confident of his chances: "He went off at 20/1 and I don't have many go off at that price that I've fancied, but we thought we'd try stepping up in trip so David entered him over three miles."
Ashkazar is currently best-price 25/1 (William Hill) for the World Hurdle in March.
Ashkazar is likely to take on Big Bucks in the 2011 World Hurdle
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