WHAT a fabulous horse Un De Sceaux is! At an age when most normal ones are on the wane, or have packed in entirely, it could even be argued that he is better than ever judged on his comprehensive defeat of Min and others in the Boylesport Champion Chase on the opening day of this year’s Punchestown Festival.

With ground conditions rather more testing than anticipated from the outset, judged on times, and deteriorating significantly as the rain fell, it is not easy to put a precise figure on this effort. But I have gone for 171, with both he and Min (166 basic timefigure) getting a further 1lb upgrade for their sectionals. The sectionals also show that everything behind finished slowly as the solid pace took its toll.

Min might not have been in quite the form he had been at Aintree, where I had him running a 173 figure, but the slight mistakes he made seemed to be forced upon him by Un De Sceaux’s relentless gallop.

It is worth remembering that the winner had made his debut (in the French Provinces) when Frankel was running but had arguably not yet reached his peak. Now, that is durability!

The other two big races at Punchestown on Tuesday were also characterised by strong paces, which found out some in the conditions. Klassical Dream in the Herald Champion Novice Hurdle gets a 150 timefigure, raised to 154 on sectionals which suggested he was paying the price a bit late on, while Delta Work was a very easy winner of the Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase with a 151 timefigure (153 on sectionals).

Klassical Dream looks a good Champion Hurdle prospect to me, for all that this win was a bit less spectacular than his Cheltenham one, while Delta Work should make into a Cheltenham Gold Cup candidate but is still slightly behind the two who beat him in the RSA Chase, Topofthegame and Santini, in my book.

Festival d’Ex gets a 120 timefigure for his runaway win in the Goffs Land Rover Bumper on his debut, though a race finishing speed of just 93% does confirm that the race fell apart somewhat late on.