IT was great to see the return of turf flat racing at Naas on Sunday, on ground that was predominantly “soft” judged on times.

Red Epaulette was an emphatic winner of the opening two-year-old race, recording a 93 figure which suggests he has a better chance than most seen out around now of making the grade later on, for all that his opposition was rather weak on paper.

There were useful wins later from Never No More in the Madrid Handicap (104 timefigure), Karawaan in a strongly-run Irish Lincolnshire (96 timefigure, approximately 99% race finishing speed) and Still Standing in the Listed Devoy Stakes (106).

Never No More was especially impressive in winning by only slightly less than Awtaad had managed off a 2lb lower mark three years earlier at the Curragh before going onto glory there in the Irish 2000 Guineas.

Normandel landed the Group 3 Park Express Stakes, but in a time that was 2.14s slower than Karawaan posted in the following race. Times and distances can be a bit of a headscratcher at Naas, but one-on-one comparisons eliminate most of the doubt, and Normandel is credited with only an 83 timefigure.

JUMPS

The best winning jumps performance in Ireland in the week came from Darasso,who made the most of a 5lb concession from Cadmium in the Grade 2 Webster Cup Chase at Navan on Monday, the pair returning timefigures of 149 and 151 respectively. The winner had been hurdling recently but had won both his starts over larger obstacles in the French Provinces before that.

The same Navan card saw Scoir Mear win a valuable novice handicap chase with a 137 timefigure. Not many horses had gone into so many notebooks in recent years, but the excuses had seemed to run dry and Scoir Mear was relatively friendless here at 25/1. By a similar token, I had backed Cubomania as often as not since his Cheltenham win in October but managed to miss him popping up at Thurles on Saturday (144 timefigure), though Benruben (142) looked narrowly to have his measure when coming down at the last.