IT'S hard to know what is a source of more annoyance. Cheltenham’s influx of Grade 1 races over untraditional distances to satisfy commercial coffers or the pandering of the sports major owners and trainers to have their best horses run in these races.

Worryingly, the two instances are somewhat symbiotic, and thus will likely continue and even worse, become even more apparent. If that is the case, maybe in the coming years we’ll have a Champion Hurdle over two and a half miles. Or a mares’ chase over two and a half. Or a mares’ novices’ chase, one over two and a quarter miles and another over two and three quarters. Beware the five-day meeting.

In the case of Apple's Jade, you can cast your own opinion about the owner or trainer’s said lack of ambition if they go down the Mares' Hurdle route again but, simply, they shouldn’t even have the option. Cheltenham should be about finding out who the best horse is in the four main divisions, hurdles and chases, novice and senior.

Cheltenham should not be about prioritising the appeasement of the big owners and trainers to allow big horses avoid each other and so allow more a slice of the cake, nor should this be about betting, and creating extra races for that practice, especially when you consider how bad ante-post offerings have become.

It surely should be about quality.

By adding races like the Ryanair Chase, JLT Novices’ Chase, Mares Hurdle, Mares Novices Hurdle, the Cheltenham Festival is diluting quality. If we didn’t have these four contests, look at some of the races we probably would have seen over the last decade; Quevega taking on Big Bucks (multiple times), Vautour running in a Gold Cup, Don Cossack taking on one more Gold Cup, Annie Power taking on one more Champion Hurdle, Yorkhill taking on Altior in an Arkle or Might Bite in an RSA Chase, Laurina/Let’s Dance/Limini running in a Supreme.

Instead the programme allows the big trainers to cherry-pick the Grade 1s and keep all their owners happy. Maybe if this wasn’t the case and trainers had to race some of their better horses against each other, owners might be more inclined to spread their horses around more trainers.

SENSATIONAL

Apple’s Jade was sensational at Fairyhouse yesterday, winning a third Hatton's Grace Hurdle. I wasn’t the only one watching it thinking they’d gone too fast, Wicklow Brave and her, hurtling away from the rest of the field, but that ultimately allowed Apple’s Jade to go even better, and in contrast, the 155-rated Willie Mullins Grade 1-winning hurdler, ended up being beaten 40 lengths. It was 20 lengths back to Supasundae, a dual Grade 1 winner last season and then a further two lengths to Limini, one of the likely main players in the Mares' Hurdle.

Make no mistake about it, this was probably the best performance in an Irish hurdle race since Faugheen thrashed an Irish Champion Hurdle field in 2016. That good. Good enough to worry connections of Buveur D'Air, if it was the case that she was earmarked as a Champion Hurdle candidate. Could he give her 7lb? It would surely be his toughest test yet.

Obviously she got beaten in the Mares' Hurdle last season so it may seem folly to argue that she is above the standard required to win it, but she clearly wasn’t herself in the second half of last season, and everytime Gordon talks about her, he points out that she kept coming in season.

She had questions to answer this season but she has now done so with force. Actually, she's probably getting better, if the winning margins of her three Hatton's Grace wins are any sort of guide. Now you’re looking at Apple’s Jade as the star attraction at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting. That’s saying something.

After that, Cheltenham should be her pinnacle test. Not her easiest race of the season.