THERE are still some people who maintain that time analysis does not matter in horseracing, let alone in jumps racing, though it would be nice to think that their numbers have diminished as a result of some of the events in the last 12 months or so.

If you cast your mind back to a year ago, when Thistlecrack won the King George VI Chase and Might Bite would have won the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase on the same card, it is extraordinary to think that one commentator described it as “picky” to point out that the latter would have been much quicker than the former over the same distance but for falling at the final fence.

Even odder was that some timing “experts” refused to put a figure on Might Bite despite his departure coming only about 150 yards from the finish when about 20 lengths clear. Surely they could have had a stab!

Thistlecrack and Might Bite have enjoyed differing fortunes since then, of course, with the former a non-winner since (though he has spent much of the time on the sidelines) and the latter unbeaten, including at the highest level.

They met for real – rather than on the clock – in this year’s King George and Might Bite came out emphatically on top, justifying favouritism with Thistlecrack several lengths back in fourth. But the stopwatch does not speak quite so favourably about Might Bite this time.

Might Bite’s overall time was just 1.4s quicker than that posted by Black Corton in winning the latest Kauto Star, when over 4.0s might have been expected. Black Corton might not even have won had Fountains Windfall stood up at the fourth-last when leading and still going comfortably.

What’s more, Might Bite ended up beating the 50/1-shot Double Shuffle by just a length, with Tea For Two only two lengths back in third, though he did look better than that for a long way.

Sectionals shed a lot more light on what went on. It transpires that the novice race was more truly-run for most of the way, and that the King George runners were still about 10 lengths adrift four out before going nearly 20 lengths quicker to the next fence (a distance of less than two and a half furlongs).

The breather Black Corton got probably helped him get home in what proved to be quite a slow finish, but the King George field got smashed up at the same stage, with everything coming back slowly (race finishing speed just 94% of average race speed).

There are reasons to take the bare form of the King George with more than a pinch of salt, in other words, with both the steady early pace and the sudden burn-up approaching the closing stages sure to have punished overall times.

We know already that Might Bite is a good horse, capable of running a good time, as a lifetime-best timefigure of 170 from Cheltenham shows. But there was no reason to think that Double Shuffle was much better than 152 previously, and that is exactly the timefigure he ran to here, compared to Might Bite’s 153 (Black Corton gets 144, incidentally).

Caution also clearly needs to be exercised where the talented but enigmatic Bristol De Mai is concerned. He looks brilliant trouncing inferior rivals but jumped stickily at times here and fell in a heap when it mattered. He is one time analysts might prefer to forget!