THE three Grade 1s at Fairyhouse last Sunday all went the way of the favourites, but Long Dog, Arctic Fire and No More Heroes advanced their standing to markedly varying degrees.

Arctic Fire had over a stone in hand of his rivals in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle on Timeform ratings and won as that suggested without doing anything special on the clock (143 timefigure), while Long Dog took a further step forward when accounting for his stablemate Bachasson, who received weight, by a neck in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle, the pair recording timefigures of 150 and 148.

But the one who really impressed was No More Heroes, who won a strong Drinmore Novice Chase in emphatic style by two and a half lengths from Monksland, with the first two posting timefigures of 151 and 149. The Gordon Elliot-trained No More Heroes is still a few pounds short of the standard likely to be required to win the RSA Chase at Cheltenham in March, but his position now as ante-post favourite for that race does seem justified, not least because he jumps so soundly and stays so well.

JUVENILES

On the same card, Rashaan moved to near the front of the ante-post betting for the Triumph Hurdle after giving weight and a clear-cut beating to his rivals in the Grade 3 Bar One Racing Juvenile Hurdle.

This looked a decidedly useful effort on paper, but the evidence of the clock suggests some caution is advisable.

Rashaan’s time was 5.2s slower than Long Dog’s half an hour later, despite the latter carrying 11 lb more, and nearly all of that difference came from three out, after which Rashaan’s rivals seemed to hit a figurative brick wall. Rashaan’s timefigure comes out at just 116. He is almost certainly better than that, but more evidence is needed before thinking that he is in the same mould as Our Conor, winner of this race in 2012.