IN an ever-changing world, the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury a few weeks before Christmas has been a constant over many decades. Come rain or shine, the race has always attracted a competitive field and often featured a top-class winner.

This year’s contest, which will be the last under the current sponsorship, attracted 19 runners and went to a young horse in Native River who deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as all but the very best of the race’s long list of winners. It was a popular result, too, with Native River backed into short-priced favouritism.

One feature of this year’s Hennessy which has scarcely been remarked upon, however, is how fast the race was in historical terms.

Records before 1987 are patchy, even for a race of this standing, but I make Native River’s winning time last Saturday the quickest from that year on. It should, at this point, be acknowledged that different sources quote different times, and that precise race distances could be called into question until recently. This year’s contest had 57 yards added to the advertised distance due to rail movement.

Nonetheless, Native River’s 6m 25.0s is quicker than Triolo d’Alene’s 6m 26.2s in 2013 and much quicker than the vast majority of Hennessys in the modern era.

That is down to ground that was no softer than good, despite reports to the contrary, and an extremely well-run race, rather than a performance of superlative merit by Native River, though he is undoubtedly a very smart staying chaser.

Native River’s obstacle-to-obstacle sectionals hit the course-and-distance pars with almost metronomic consistency, and his ability to keep finding after he had forced the pace took him to a half-length success over Carole’s Destrier and a timefigure of 161. That is the sixth-fastest by a chaser in Britain and Ireland so far this season.

A measure of the task facing last year’s winner, Smad Place, in giving weight to all of his rivals is that he goes into joint-fourth on 163 despite finishing only seventh this time round.

Talk of a Cheltenham Gold Cup challenge for Native River is understandable, though his stable-companion Cue Card has already run a much higher timefigure (173) this campaign.

Another of Native River’s stable-mates, Thistlecrack, entered the top-20 chasing timefigures and went in at number two (behind Altior on 164) among novices following his easy win and 158 timefigure in another well-run contest earlier on the card. On the face of it, second-placed Bigbadjohn ran to 150, though it would be good to get confirmation hereafter that he is as good as that.

Good time performances by novice hurdlers and juvenile hurdlers have been remarkably thin on the ground, but this already looks as if it could be a vintage season for novices over the larger obstacles, and the hugely talented Thistlecrack is one who is leading the way.