STORM Jorge did for racing at Newbury last Saturday, and the after effects of its predecessors wiped out meetings in Ireland and Britain earlier in the week.

Some decent fare still took place, notably at Doncaster and Kelso, both on properly heavy going.

Definitly Red’s time in winning the listed chase at the latter course compared well with the handicap run later on, and trainer Brian Ellison’s bullish comments regarding the horse’s prospects in the Grand National have at least some support from the figures.

I went with a figure of 160 for the performance, which is in keeping with the gelding’s better previous efforts and makes him quite well handicapped at Aintree off a mark of 156, the highest rating of an unremarkable week.

Clondaw Caitlin took a rather weak Grade 2 novice hurdle earlier on the card readily with a 134 timefigure and has been expertly placed by Ruth Jefferson to win her last four.

Gino Trail (154) and Captain Chaos (144) coped with the testing conditions at Doncaster better than their rivals but still recorded very useful figures in winning handicap chases, the latter the quite valuable Grimthorpe that Definitly Red had won three years earlier.

Conditions deteriorated as things went on the previous day at Doncaster, and it was a pleasant surprise to see Saturday take place. Highlight of Friday was the facile success of 155-rated First Flow in the two-mile novice chase.

The eight-year-old would have a fair chance in the Grand Annual at Cheltenham under a penalty if the ground were similar to this.

Other noteworthy winning performances came from Cill Anna (131) in a listed mares’ novices’ hurdle at Doncaster, Destinee Royale (137) in a novices’ handicap chase at Market Rasen and Red Risk (142) in another novices’ handicap chase at Ludlow.

Charli Parcs popped up for the first time in 469 days at Leopardstown on Sunday, having joined Aidan Howard from Nicky Henderson, and duly won a minor hurdle. The time was not especially fast (only a bit quicker than 126-rated Jon Snow in the previous race) but the gelding’s old figure of 145 can be reinstated.