THERE were plenty of positives to be taken from Might Bite’s seasonal debut in the Future Stars Intermediate Chase at Sandown last Sunday.

For starters, his jumping was very good.

He travelled and jumped like a good horse, he came away from Frodon from the second last fence, and there was no issue with the Sandown hill, not like the issue that there was with the Cheltenham hill last March. He came up it as if he was engine-propelled.

It was not surprising that the bookmakers took the opportunity to shorten Nicky Henderson’s horse’s odds for both the King George and the Gold Cup on the back of that run but, really, besides the fact that he behaved impeccably, he did no more than he was entitled to do.

Runner-up Frodon was rated 152 going into the race, Might Bite was rated 162, they met on level terms and Might Bite won by eight lengths. That all makes sense, you would have expected a margin of that magnitude. Label Des Obeaux and As De Mee were both in receipt of 8lb, but the former didn’t jump well enough and the latter faded over the last two fences.

Also, the time that Might Bite clocked was slower than the time that Houblon Des Obeaux clocked in winning the veterans’ chase run over the same course and distance 70 minutes later.

Admittedly (despite the claim on the gable end of the old stand at the Curragh, and paraphrasing) times do not disclose all, and Might Bite was eased down on the run-in while Houblon Des Obeaux had to be ridden out to the line to get home by a half a length. However, the two horses carried similar weights and the older horse was almost a second and a half faster.

Houblon Des Obeaux is a 10-year-old who is fully exposed, he has raced 33 times over fences, and he is rated 141.

Of course, Might Bite should be able to step up on Sunday’s run, he was making his seasonal debut and it was just his eighth run over fences, but he is probably going to have to.