THE John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase on Sunday was another example of a small-field contest which provided an intriguing contest beforehand and a good spectacle in actuality.

In a five-runner affair, Min was played late to win by a length and a half from the rallying Shattered Love,Balko Des Flos just two and a half lengths back and The Storyteller in turn just a head behind that one.

Sectionals show this was a somewhat tactical affair, but I still have a timefigure of 159 on the winner, compared to his best of 164 last season, which means 150 on the runner-up and 155 on third and fourth. This looks to be as far as Min wants to go.

The John Durkan was still not as fast a finish, by several lengths, as that put in by Getabird to win the beginners chase half an hour later: indeed, I could find only Douvan at the Punchestown Festival in 2016 completing from two out over fences at this course quicker in recent times than Getabird did here. It says something that Getabird still posted a 145 timefigure, one he will surely improve upon in due course.

That last comment also applies to Tornado Flyer, who could well take high rank among novice hurdlers this campaign following a 133-timefigure winning debut in the maiden hurdle earlier on the Punchestown card.

Chances are that Getabird will encounter Hardline sooner or later after the latter continued to build on good early work in the two-mile novice chase division through an emphatic success in the Klairon Davis Novice Chase at Navan on Saturday, an effort worth a 146 timefigure.

A direct time comparison between the two chases at Cork on Sunday needs to take into account the fact that the mares’ novice contest won by Camelia De Cotte in a time faster than the Hilly Way Chase won by Castlegrace Paddy involved the omission of a fence and the runners taking a shortcut before reaching the back straight. I make it that the mares ran about 80 yards shorter all told.

The resulting timefigures are 156 for Castlegrace Paddy and 143 for Camelia de Cotte, both of them solid for the grade, for all that the suspicion is the former met the majority of his rivals not at the top of their games.

Derrinross (114 timefigure) might not have achieved a great deal in taking the Stayers Novice Hurdle earlier on the Cork card.