IF the National Hunt season was ambling away in the background before this week, hands in pockets, nonplussed, kicking a stone or two, in the subtext beneath the Enable and Winx and Aidan O’Brien headlines of the flat, then it broke into a veritable canter at Punchestown this week.

There were performances and there was quality and there were promises for the future. Petit Mouchoir was seriously impressive in winning the two-mile beginners’ chase on Wednesday. Henry de Bromhead’s horse was an odds-on shot, you expected that he would win and that he would win fairly easily, but you could only have hoped that he would win in the style in which he won.

Sent to the front from flagfall by Davy Russell, he was aggressive and he was fast and he was accurate and he was fluent. Brelade closed up at the second last fence, but Russell just gave his horse a little squeeze, and he came clear again. He got the final fence a little wrong, but only a little and, given that he got safely to the landing side, it was no harm to make a little error. This steeplechasing business is a learning curve, and the Gigginstown House horse has just embarked on it.

The performance had substance as well as style. Brelade was a talented novice hurdler last season, he finished second behind Saturnas in the Grade 1 Future Champions Novices’ Hurdle at Leopardstown at Christmas and he finished third behind Bacardys and Bunk Off Early in the Grade 1 Deloitte Hurdle at Leopardstown in February.

As well as that, he had had a run over fences this season at Gowran Park, he had an edge over his rival in terms of chasing experience and in terms of race fitness. And Petit Mouchoir beat him well, with the pair of them nicely ahead of Burgas, and Burgas a distance clear of the rest.

Henry de Bromhead said afterwards that the Al Namix gelding would have no problem stepping up in trip, but it was difficult not to think Arkle Trophy. The grey gelding was a top-class hurdler last season, the Ryanair Hurdle winner, the Irish Champion Hurdle winner and third in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

He is a top-class recruit to chasing and he could prove to be even better over fences than over hurdles. As Davy Russell said after Wednesday’s race, these Henry de Bromhead horses have a habit of improving again once they go over fences.

Petit Mouchoir has proven form at Cheltenham too and his aggressive style of racing is well suited to an Arkle.

FESTIVAL

Of course, there is a long way to go before we get to the Cheltenham Festival, and the last thing you want to be doing is wishing this National Hunt season away because, as it is at this time just about every year, it is shaping up to be a season to savour.

De Bromhead said after Wednesday’s race that the Craddockstown Chase could be the next step now for Petit Mouchoir, and that makes sense. That is a race that the trainer has won four times in the last eight years, with Sizing Europe, Days Hotel, Sizing John and Identity Thief. Petit Mouchoir is on a good path.