BUVEUR D’Air was brilliant in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on Saturday. If there was ever a suspicion that J.P. McManus’ dual Champion Hurdle winner has not been getting the recognition that he has been due, that anomaly has now surely been addressed.

Racing for the first time since he won his second Champion Hurdle last March, there was a chance that the Nicky Henderson-trained gelding would be free and keen through the early stages of the race, especially behind the sedate pace that Jack Kennedy set on Samcro, but he wasn’t. Barry Geraghty got him beautifully settled from early just behind Samcro. You have to think that the rider was completely happy at every stage of the race.

SLICK

We know that Buveur D’Air is a slick hurdler, but that talent was brought into sharp focus on Saturday, against the foil of Samcro’s hurdling technique. Gordon Elliott’s horse was very good at most of his obstacles, but his technique is different to Buveur D’Air’s. He soars over his hurdles, whereas Buveur D’Air flicks through them. The reigning champ spends very little time in the air with all four feet off the ground. The contrast between their respective hurdling techniques was very much in evidence.

Most of the great Champion Hurdlers had a fast hurdling technique. Hurricane Fly hardly broke stride in getting from one side of a flight of hurdles to the other. Buveur D’Air is similar. If you Photoshopped the hurdles out of the video of Saturday’s race (if, indeed, it is possible to Photoshop things out of videos), and watched only Buveur D’Air, it would probably be difficult to determine where some of the hurdles had been.

It may be that Samcro is the second best hurdler in training – he finished 14 lengths clear of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner on Saturday – and it wasn’t ideal for him that he had to make his own running.

That said, on the bare evidence of Saturday’s race alone, he has a lot of ground to make up on Buveur D’Air. More than the eight-length winning margin.

There is a chance that he will make it up before the Champion Hurdle. March is still three months away and Samcro is still a relatively inexperienced hurdler, whose profile now is remarkably similar to the profile that 2015 Champion Hurdle hero Faugheen had at this stage of his career. (Six-year-old, second-season hurdler, point-to-point winner, Ballymore Hurdle winner.)

And you can’t run scared of one horse. But it is a big ask. Saturday told us that Buveur D’Air is at least as good as ever, and that he may be even better than ever.