FOR many, the renamed Cheltenham November Meeting is the start of the jumps season “proper”.

There were plenty of tasty performances across the three days, as well as some less palatable ones, with the fixture characterised by more testing ground than usual.

That last remark applies from start to finish. The times on the first day suggested the ground was soft on the chase course and nearly that on the hurdles – despite what was reported officially – and it quickly turned boggy when unexpected rain arrived on the Saturday.

As is often the case in such circumstances, many runners were taken wide, and readers are advised to keep an eye on how that factor plays out in future results.

Performance of the meeting on overall times was that of Fox Norton in winning the Shloer Chase on the Sunday by eight lengths from Cloudy Dream in a time 2.3s (around 10 lengths) quicker than North Hill Harvey ran in victory in the Racing Post Arkle Trophy Trial Novices Chase shortly before.

Sectionals show that both races were truly-run, despite the small fields, and a positive view can be taken: the Shloer was just over a second quicker than the novice race for most of the closing stages. I have Fox Norton running a personal-best 165 timefigure – second only to Faugheen over jumps this season – and North Hill Harvey 149.

Fox Norton was beaten only a head by Special Tiara (third here) in the Champion Chase earlier this year and looks a solid prospect for the race again in March. North Hill Harvey – a live Champion Hurdle outsider this time last year before disappointing – needs only to improve a few lengths more to be a major contender for the Arkle Chase unless it proves to be one of the superior editions.

One horse that North Hill Harvey may well come up against sooner or later is Finian’s Oscar, who won a novice chase over an extended two and a half miles at Cheltenham on the Friday.

Time analysts have not been as enamoured with Finian’s Oscar as have others to date – the first occasion on which he ran a decent figure over hurdles was when he got beaten at Punchestown – but there is a lot more to this latest effort than meets the eye.

His overall time was again nothing special – I have a figure of 130 – but his closing sectionals were something else. He ran from two out in just over 23.0s, which is the fastest split I have over fences on the Old Course at Cheltenham in recent years, a length or two ahead of Douvan and Altior when they won the last two Arkles, at a shorter trip, with notably fast finishes and on less testing ground.

Only a smart horse could do that, even in a slowly-run race as here, and it has changed my mind about Finian’s Oscar, who has a lot more speed than I had previously credited him with. He should cope with a return to two miles, for sure.