Defi Du Seuil

Credit where credit is due, Defi Du Seuil was superb at Ascot on Saturday in the way that he moved, jumped and put the race to bed.

The race did seem to fall apart slightly, and lots has been made of how close Marracudja got in behind him, but you’ve got to look past that.

Whether Defi goes for the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase – for which he heads the antepost market at – or the Ryanair Chase – where he is a favourite – he’ll be bang there coming to two out in either.

Triumph Hurdle

We didn’t learn anything over the weekend apart from the fact that nothing is able to get close to Goshen at this point.

He’s still some way of being top-class for me, but he keeps winning in great style.

He’s currently for the Triumph Hurdle, and he’ll certainly make it a race to savour if he manages to slip clear coming to two out, as he has done in all of his starts over hurdles to date.

Newbury last Wednesday

There was a good card at Newbury earlier in the week, and I couldn’t have been more impressed with Shishkin.

He has always been very highly-touted and has been very well backed at for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham following that success. 

In the bumper, Your Darling was successful on his racecourse debut for the Ben Pauling yard.

Everyone is waxing lyrical about him and he looks to be right out of the top drawer. Hopefully, we see him next at Aintree.

The notebook

The notebook had plenty of other new entries this week, all of which are from the other side of the Irish sea.

Column Of Fire looked hot in a novice hurdle at Punchestown on Wednesday and it wouldn’t surprise to see him in the Martin Pipe at Cheltenham.

From the same stable, Eskylane showed huge improvement from his first bumper run to his second and is a name that we’ll hear more of in the future. He’s currently for the Champion Bumper.

Power Of Pause is for the same race. He was second in the bumper at Thurles on Sunday where the front two both looked very smart, though we won’t see the best of him until he goes over three miles.

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