IF they ran a competition for the most testing ground of the jumps season, it would be particularly well-contested this time round. My vote would marginally go for that Cork meeting in December at which Un De Sceaux won, but another contender emerged on Sunday when Thurles managed to complete its card despite standing water in places and some painfully slow overall times.

It is all relative, however, and the two chases at two and a half miles still make for an interesting comparison. According to my clockings, Dinaria Des Obeaux was 2.7s (over 10 lengths) quicker in winning the Coolmore-sponsored mares’ novice chase than A Toi Phil had been in winning the Kinloch Brae Chase half an hour earlier, when almost exactly the opposite might have been expected.

A Toi Phil carried 15lb more and comes out better at 143 to the mare’s 138, but that latter figure still ends up being a good one in context. Both Dinaria Des Obeaux and runner-up Magic Of Light (who carried 7lb more and gets a 137 timefigure) are decidedly useful mares in what is usually quite a weak division.

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It is not difficult to establish where most of the difference occurred, for A Toi Phil was around 10 lengths quicker from two out than Dinaria Des Obeaux: one race was somewhat falsely-run, the other (the mares’) was strongly-run for the conditions. Haydock on Saturday was very nearly as testing, and The Dutchman had to show stamina aplenty to win the Peter Marsh Handicap Chase there by 13 lengths. A timefigure of 146 suggests this was up to scratch, if not as good as Bristol De Mai’s cakewalk 12 months earlier.

One effort during last week which should have made a bigger impact than it did was the novice handicap chase win of Saint Calvados at Newbury on Wednesday. This looked every inch a fine effort on the stopwatch, though there was only one other chase with which to compare it.

Saint Calvados ran his three useful rivals ragged despite giving weight all round, coming home 10 lengths to the good over Tree Of Liberty. I have a timefigure of 153 for the Harry Whittington-trained gelding and he was by no means all out.

That has him fourth among two-mile novice chasers, behind Sceau Royal (159), Footpad (156) and Brain Power (154), and I could not resist an investment at 25/1 for the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham in March. He deserves to have a crack at that sort of company, for sure.