THE ground was back to “good to soft” for the second day at Aintree and Felix Desjy lasted the extended two miles of the Grade 1 Betway Top Novices’ Hurdle better than he had on softer ground at Cheltenham, making all under an enterprising Jack Kennedy ride to beat Aramon by a length and a half.

The Gordon Elliott-trained gelding did have to go pretty fast in the process, though, posting a 152 timefigure and a slow 93% finishing speed which suggests he can go a bit higher still another day.

Lostintranslation benefited from the step up in trip in the Grade 1 Mildmay Novices’ Chase but also from the under-performance of RSA Chase winner Topofthegame, while reproducing his 154 figure from three weeks earlier. He is a really likeable gelding, but some post-race comments suggested the form of this race was rather better than it deserved.

PHENOMENAL

Performance of the day on Friday has to go to Min, however, who was phenomenally good in beating Politologue and Waiting Patiently by wide margins in the Grade 1 JLT (Melling) Chase, backing it up on the clock to a large degree with a 173 timefigure for good measure. If this Min, under this sort of no-nonsense ride, had turned up at Cheltenham then Altior would have been in serious trouble in the Champion Chase.

Champ upheld the form of the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham (in which he had been beaten two lengths by City Island) by landing the Grade 1 Doom Bar Sefton Novices’ Hurdlecover further readily by three lengths from Emitom, though it was not a thorough test (103% finishing speed) and he was a bit below his 152-best timefigure on 147.

Cadmium was in terrific heart in winning the Randox Health Topham Handicap Chase from the front in comfortable style, posting a 157 timefigure, and McFabulous ran one of the better bumper times of the season (126) in grinding out victory over Thebannerkingrebel (125) in the concluding Grade 2.