THE jumps season “proper” seems to be taking longer than usual to swing into top gear this year, but there were several at-least-useful winning performances on time in the last week, headed by the 157-rated effort of Sub Lieutenant in the Irish Daily Star Chase at Punchestown on Wednesday.

The nine-length runner-up Outlander was conceding 10lbs and comes out slightly better on 159, but the rejuvenated Sub Lieutenant seems the more reliable proposition these days.

Cadmium and Ornua were the one-two in the Buck House Novice Chase on the same card, their efforts backed up by solid timefigures of 144 and 142.

Itchy Feet and Verdana Blue both won listed hurdles at Kempton on Sunday, though there is no doubt which was the more meritorious performance on the stopwatch.

The former’s four-runner race was farcically slow, especially early on, and I have a timefigure of just 46 on the Olly Murphy-trained four-year-old.

Verdana Blue was more than a furlong quicker in beating the smart Old Guard by seven lengths, posting a 143 timefigure in the process, and shaped again like she may be up to mixing it with some of the better hurdlers around when the emphasis is on speed as here.

There were good wins also for 140-rated Monbeg Theatre in a handicap hurdle at Wetherby (a card on which several times were remarkably quick), 142-rated Bags Groove in a novice chase at Ffos Las, and locally-trained 144-rated Silver Streak in the Welsh Champion Hurdle at the same course.

The last-named is a handicap, despite its grandiose title, and Le Prezien (152), Ozzie The Oscar (146), Mohaayed (145) and Ch’tibello (146) all put up good numbers in defeat.