THURSDAY at the Cheltenham Festival could not quite match the pyrotechnics of the first two days in time terms but there were still a couple of major winning performances. With the action having switched from the Old Course to the more stamina-testing New Course, the ground still appeared to be soft.

The best time of all came from Balko Des Flos, who surprised me in winning the Ryanair Chase and who did it smoothly, too. The runners were a few lengths behind par early but soon caught up after Un De Sceaux went to the front at the fifth and actually did plenty before a slightly slow finish.

Nonetheless, the race was run efficiently enough for it to be a fair result and to prompt a 164 timefigure from Balko Des Flos (159 Un De Sceaux). The under-performance of both Cue Card and Frodon should not be allowed to take much away from excellent efforts from the first two.

IMPRESSIVE

Not so fast in relative terms, but similarly impressive compared to what might be expected of the winners of the respective races, was the success of Laurina in the Trull House Stud Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle.

The great British hope Maria’s Benefit ended up running herself out up front, not helped by the constant attentions of Laurina’s stablemate Cut The Mustard, and Champayne Lady managed to claim third at 80/1 despite having looked nothing out of the ordinary previously. But it would be folly to underestimate what Laurina did here.

I have her timefigure at 154, which is the equal of Summerville Boy in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on the opening day, and she would get a sex allowance were she to meet the boys. What’s more, she did it extraordinarily easily, at least until the run-in, with the way she took off on the long run to the last particularly impressive.

The impression was that we might have been witnessing a major coming force in jumps racing, rather than the sort of mare who should remain pot-hunting against her own kind, and the time backs that up to a large extent.

It is not difficult to see Laurina making into a serious Champion Hurdle contender next season, and it is to be hoped that connections give her a crack against the best novice hurdlers before then. Samcro looks the only novice they really need to be scared of.